After the military meeting, Xu Ling, Chen Su, and Fuliang urgently adjusted the defenders of the four cities; Han Qiwen took the local officials of Huaichuan County and rushed back to the county government office.
The government arranged to recruit local soldiers and warriors to participate in the defense of the city; Shi Hu and Xu Fang organized the reserve team under the city; Chen Zixiao took Cheng Xiao to check for leaks and fill vacancies, and met with lower-level military officials on behalf of Xu Huai to give orders.
The city urgently demolished a number of door panels.
Xu Huai, Meng Jie, Xu Kang and others walked out of the tower and looked at the wilderness under the moonlight.
Only half an hour had passed, and more than a hundred soldiers and scouts had gathered outside the North City Gate, patrolling in the distance.
The defeated soldiers below the city have all been roped up to the city, and there are only more than a hundred people in total.
I don't know how many of the defeated soldiers of Xuanwei's army were able to escape and ascend to heaven, but now a large number of soldiers and scouts have rushed towards Huaichuan City, and the main cavalry will gather at any time, and the roads will be blocked, even if there are more defeated soldiers who are lucky.
Even if he survives, he won't be able to get close to Huaichuan City in a short time.
More than a hundred soldiers arrived at the top of the city, and it was quiet at first.
However, the defenders of the North City were adjusted. The Xuanwei Army soldiers from the four capitals were to follow Fu Liang and Chen Li to guard the East and West City. The North City Wall was five miles long. At this time, there were only a hundred defenders standing on the city. They collapsed.
When the soldiers saw this scene, they all thought that the officer was going to escape with his soldiers, so they immediately started making a fuss and tried to push away the colleagues who were guarding them and rush out.
If Xu Huai had not entered the city, the defenders might have abandoned the city and fled. Who would care whether these defeated soldiers could escape?
However, Xu Huai and the princes are in the city tower. Who among the leading generals and several military officials dares to make a mistake and allow the defeated soldiers to scatter and escape?
Hearing the noise, Xu Huai, Meng Jie, Xu Kang and others walked to the war tent where the defeated soldiers were restrained, holding their sabers on their waists, and just looked at the noisy defeated soldiers quietly.
Wang Xiaocheng was one of the few famous generals in the history of the Dai Viet Dynasty for more than a hundred years, but he died in Yunzhou; Xu Huai, as the son of Wang Xiaocheng, was protected by his generals and hid in Tongbai Mountain until he grew up.
Countless people assisted Jian's successor in guarding Gong County, fought in Bishui, and rushed thousands of miles to attack Taiyuan.
Even after the imperial capital was officially rehabilitated for Wang Xiaocheng and granted the title of Duke, the officials were still very instructive. Even the middle and high-level generals felt that Xu Huai had gained such a high reputation at such a young age, and felt very dissatisfied. However, the lower-level generals were not satisfied with these.
Allusions are the most talked about, and even these deeds tend to be further legendary.
After the defeated soldiers climbed up to the city, they all knew who the young man in front of them was. He looked at him with burning eyes and felt guilty, and the noise quickly subsided.
Xu Huai asked calmly:
"Twenty thousand Xuanwei troops have been defeated. If you think of just escaping, you must be irresponsible. I don't want you to care about the lives of the 100,000 people in Huaichuan City. Your family is not here. You
It’s just a mouthful of military rations, but I want to ask you, do you have any brothers or sisters north of this city who are being hunted by the captive soldiers? Have you ever thought that living in this city can give them an extra way to survive?
Do you have any brothers or sisters who were hunted down by the captive soldiers? Do you have any hatred or resentment in your heart? Do you have any thoughts of avenging them? Huaichuan is not guarded, Huaihe River is not guarded, and the Huaihe River goes south to Jiuliguan, Pingjingguan, and Wuhan.
If you fail to defend the pass, and the captive soldiers drive away from Jinghu, who will guard Jinghu for you? You may think that you can take your family and relatives across the Yangtze River and escape south, but who do you expect to guard the Yangtze River? Maybe a fool like me can't.
Young Master, I would rather die than fight against the Red Husbands, I would rather die than fight for a chance of survival for the hundreds of millions of people behind me, I would rather die than see the mountains and rivers shattered, I would rather die than want to expel the barbarians and regain the mountains and rivers.
You may be able to survive because of us fools working hard at the front, but when you return home, face your fellow villagers, and the children before your knees, how do you explain the hundreds of thousands of generals who sacrificed their lives for this mountain and river?
Hot blood, why did you go back? Can you tell the children in front of you that you were greedy for life and afraid of death, and abandoned your brothers who swore to live and die together in the camp and fled back? What if all the men in Dai Viet were like you?
You coward deserves to be trampled beyond recognition by barbarians and covered in blood! I, Meng, and Xu, the two gentlemen, cannot guarantee that you will survive tonight, but I still say that if reinforcements are not available, I will
Even if we die on the top of this city, we will never leave even half a step. If you don't believe it, you can choose a few people to hold swords and guard behind us. If we abandon others and escape, you can stab us in the back with your swords.
Hou Jue has no complaints!"
Seeing that the defeated soldiers were all silent, Xu Huai stopped scolding them and turned around to look at the tower.
The Huaichuan North Tower is two stories high, surrounded by bricks and stones, with double eaves covered with tiles. The cold moonlight seems to have covered the tile eaves with a layer of frost.
The towers are surrounded by corridors, and the front and north wall are more than ten feet wider than the walls on both sides.
At this time, a bonfire was added to each corner of the tower, poured with wax oil, and burned brightly, illuminating the tower as brightly as day.
Xu Huai walked to the bonfire in the northeast corner of the tower and looked toward the city from the crenel.
The defeated troops rushed to the city, and the captured soldiers and scouts were wandering not far away. The news that Liu Xian and Fu Qian led the main force of the Xuanwei Army to be defeated in Jiaopi had spread like wildfire in the city.
He did not have time and could not provide timely guidance to the entire city's soldiers and civilians.
What can be done now is to burn the bonfires around the North Tower brighter so that the entire city's soldiers and civilians can see that he, Meng Jie, Xu Kang and other officials have not abandoned them.
Otherwise, it would be a fool's errand. Once the panic spreads, there would be no need for troops to attack the city, and the city would be in chaos first.
Niu Er lowered his head to look at the defeated soldiers who were still muttering in the war tent, and asked Xu Huai in a low voice: "Do you want to kill a few people to establish your authority? Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't be able to save trouble?"
"..." Xu Huai glanced at Niu Er, smiled, and said, "Do you still know about this?" He shook his head and said, "The responsibility for the defeat of Jiao Pi does not lie with the generals. They can escape."
Returning home is just luckier than other generals, so why is there any crime in being anxious and uneasy at this time?"
Of course, Xu Huai said these words to Meng Jie, Xu Kang and others around him. In fact, Chen Zixiao, Shi Hu, and Xu Zhen were all too busy to get away. Counting Niu Er, there were only five of them around him.
The availability of personal soldiers cannot ensure control of the situation, so some gentle strategies must be adopted.
Hearing a commotion around him, Xu Huai turned around and saw the generals rushing towards the crenel. He also walked to the crenel and saw a low hillock three or four miles away. At this time, cavalry were coming from the darkness further north.
Gather there.
No matter how good the moonlight is, the field of vision is extremely limited.
The cavalry quickly gathered together and felt that everything was filled with darkness, as if the flood that was about to destroy Huaichuan City set off a huge black wave in front of the low hill. The neighing of the war horses was like the sound of roaring waves and crashing waves, which was heartbreaking.
Sandu County sword archers and Yidu Xingyuan soldiers also quickly adjusted to Beicheng at this time.
This was the first time that they saw so many captives approaching Huaichuan City, and the shock in their hearts was even more intense.
However, when the more than a hundred defeated soldiers saw that the newly adjusted more than 400 garrison generals had climbed up the north city wall, it was not the officials who wanted to lead people to escape from the city as they had guessed before, so they stopped being restless and became quiet.
Although there were many defensive equipment at the top of the city, Xu Huai arranged for people to remove as many imperial gate panels as possible from nearby areas and send them to the top of the city.
The battlement walls of Huaichuan City are not too high, only about the neck of a normal adult, and the openings of the battlements are relatively wide.
In addition to being able to shoot accurately and directly at the positions of the crenellations, the Red Husbands also used their crossbows and crossbows to shoot feather arrows when a large group of troops approached the city. The defenders squatted half-crouched behind the crenellated walls and their view was blocked, so they became less prepared.
"These door panels are not for you to hold high above your heads, but to erect a barrier on both sides of the war tent, two steps away from the stacked wall, to block bows and arrows." Xu Huaixian informed the generals of the defense points, and then
He then led his guards on the city wall and repeatedly warned the generals below, "The soldiers did not bring any siege equipment in their haste, not even ladders. There is nothing to be afraid of when climbing the city with ropes. Take care to guard against the soldiers."
For the crossbow, they throw the rope up, and the shield holder can step forward and cut it off; the spear holder stands behind the door panel to ensure that the spear and spear can pierce the soldiers who come in from the crenel..."
Watching the captive cavalry slowly approaching the city in several groups, and looking at the more than 500 horses on the city, they were sparsely distributed on the nearly five-mile-long city wall. A team of ten people had to guard eight or nine on the left and right.
Meng Jie, Xu Kang and others couldn't help but feel excited at the Zhangkuo.
Han Qiwen led the local officials and said that they were recruiting local soldiers and warriors from various families who had taken refuge in Huaichuan, but the time was too limited and no one was sent to the city for a while.
However, the captive soldiers bypassed the gate tower and divided into several groups to approach the city. They held bows and fired towards the city.
Although the defenders at the top of the city were in panic, they still knew how to hide under the war shed or behind the door panel.
The defenders of the North City seemed to have one or two hundred bows, but they did not have many elite archers and few strong bows. Xu Huai directly prohibited them from approaching the crenellated walls and fought back from the crenellations. After hundreds of cavalry approached the city, the first wave of fire was fired.
The three people panicked and were shot in the shoulder blades and screamed in agony, but there were no more casualties, so everyone calmed down a bit.
The soldiers then went around to the east and west cities to test the situation using the same tactics. When they saw that the defenders on the city could keep their composure and did not rush back with their bows and crossbows, they quickly distanced themselves.
"Hou Xu, where are the reinforcements from Chushan?"
Seeing more captives advancing toward the north city, and seeing a large number of captives nearby not holding crossbows but hooks, Meng Jie could no longer hold his breath and grabbed Xu Huai's arm and asked.
road.
"You can't calm down anymore?" Xu Huai smiled. When he saw Chen Zixiao coming from the road to the city, he threw a rifle bow over and said, "Zixiao, have you ever thought of shooting a child so happily?
What’s the chance to defeat the thief?”
A strong bow consumes too much energy, and Xu Huai is extremely powerful, and it is difficult to shoot an empty bag of arrows with a strong bow; in order to better balance both wings, of course they all use ordinary Zhemu walking bows.
"Xu Hou, if we are willing to defend the city and kill the enemy, we must have weapons!" Two military officials who had fled back to Huaichuan City came over and asked.
When the defeated soldiers were lowered to the top of the city, all the weapons in their hands were confiscated to prevent them from causing trouble.
"Generals, guard the city and kill the enemy. There are so many weapons at the top of the city. Do I forbid you from taking them?" Xu Huai asked rhetorically.
