At the height of the moon, more than 30 hundred-man troops of the Red Hussars surrounded the Huaichuan City. The darkness was like a surging flood, trying to destroy the city hanging alone on the north bank of the Huai River under the moonlight.
When Meng Jie, Xu Kang and others saw this scene, their beating hearts rose to their throats again, and their faces twitched uncontrollably.
"We defended this city!"
Xu Huai glanced at Meng Jie, Xu Kang and others looked flustered, and explained calmly,
"Chihu is bounded by Yingshui and Woishui, and is roughly divided into two attack directions, namely Zhennan Zongwangfu and Pingyanzongwangfu. The cavalry that attacked Xuanwei Army in Jiaopi today should be affiliated with Zhennan.
Under the command of Prince Zong's Mansion; we had not noticed its presence in the lower reaches of Ru River and Ying River before. This cavalry should have been urgently transferred from other places by Zhennan Prince's Mansion to support the puppet Chu soldiers and horses in attacking the Huaishang defense line. There are only four in number.
Five thousand people. The two armies of Chi Hu, the east and the west, may cooperate in fighting, but they will never easily ask for reinforcements from each other unless it is absolutely necessary. Therefore, this winter, the Zhennan Zong Palace mobilized troops in the upper reaches of Ru River and Ying River.
There are probably only these four to five thousand elite cavalry, and they are mainly used against the Chushan Army and Zuo Xiaosheng Army. Without this cavalry to hold down the formation, Yue Hailou would not dare to easily lead his troops to the Chushan and Wuyang defense lines.
Therefore, no matter whether the general hiding behind the scenes is Yue Hailou or any Tibetan general, they will not easily use these four or five thousand elite Red Husbands to board the city to compete with us. Next, they will really attack the city at night in a vain attempt.
The only ones who captured Huaichuan City before our Chushan reinforcements arrived were Zhong Changqing's troops who rebelled against the Hu people. Zhong Changqing's troops all surrendered their soldiers. They had to form a formation before they dared to slowly approach the city.
, this also determines that they cannot quickly and flexibly adjust their offensive deployment between the North City and the East and West cities like the Red Husband Cavalry. This also gives us a lot of convenience to adjust our deployment in time. They mainly attack the North City, and we will move the defenders.
The main force has been mobilized to the north city. If they want to attack the east and west cities, we will send more troops and horses to the east and west cities. Our mobilization on the inside is much faster and more flexible than theirs. Are we still afraid that thousands of surrendered soldiers can rely on a few broken weapons?
Can the ladder be used to gnaw down Huaichuan? In addition, don’t forget that Chushan still has soldiers and horses north of Huaichuan to contain the other main forces of the enemy!"
Xu Huai's explanation was mainly due to the thoughts of An Mengjie, Xu Kang and other generals.
There will be a bloody battle next, but as long as the officials keep their minds steady, the city wall will be fine.
And what he said was not false.
The fighting will of Zhong Changqing's soldiers cannot be compared with the elites of Chi Hu's own clan.
What's more, these soldiers had been participating in the annihilation battle against the Xuanwei Army throughout the day, and marched to Huaichuan overnight. The rest time in between was definitely not too long, and their physical strength was already exhausted.
This not only reduces their combat effectiveness, but also slows down the speed and pace of their organization of sieges.
The enemy may have some large siege equipment such as siege engines, cave-chariots, and more stable ladder trucks with cover facilities in Jiaopi, but it is impossible to drag them down to Huaichuan City overnight.
Zhong Changqing's soldiers could only rely on the simplest ladders to attach the city.
The garrison generals had poor combat effectiveness, and the newly recruited rural soldiers who came to the city had even worse combat effectiveness. However, facing the exhausted Zhong Changqing's troops, whose combat effectiveness could not be said to be extremely strong, the city wall and the many things prepared on it were
Defensive equipment can bring great advantages to the defenders.
Although there are currently only 1,500 or 600 rural soldiers and village warriors recruited, the enemy's attack direction is fixed and cannot be flexibly changed. The defenders can still form a superior force at the top of the city through rapid mobilization from the inside to suppress the attack.
Enemy siege.
Zhong Changqing's troops have more than 15,000 troops on the right bank of Ying River, but most of the infantry are still on the Jiaopi and Chaijiao lines.
These areas are eighty or ninety miles away from Huaichuan. After fighting during the day, the ordinary infantry under Zhong Changqing were unable to travel all night, so they rushed to the attached city under Huaichuan City overnight to fight.
Zhong Changqing's troops were able to mobilize to Huaichuan City in time to participate in the battle, which was only three or four thousand horse infantry.
Of course, Zhong Changqing's troops were about to launch an attack on the North City Wall, and Xu Huai was forced to mobilize half of the newly assembled rural soldiers to the North City Wall, increasing the number of North City defenders to more than 1,400.
At this time, the Red Husbands would still take advantage of the lack of troops in the east and west cities and launch a strong attack from the flanks.
Therefore, the core of tonight's battle is to defend the four gate towers.
As long as the four city gates (towers) are not lost, and even the most critical south city gate (tower) is not lost, even if the captive soldiers are temporarily attacked into the city, Xu Huai is confident that after Xu Xin'an leads reinforcements, he can drive the captive soldiers away through street fighting.
go out.
The Red Husband Cavalry are invincible in the world. They are on the open plains and grasslands, but their equipment is mainly light armor, light scimitars and riding bows. Do they dare to fight bloody battles with the Chushan armored elites in narrow streets?
For this reason, Xu Huai also tried his best to pile various obstacles on the east and west cities. If necessary, he could even set these obstacles on fire, and the limited defenders only needed to defend the horse-faced walls.
And key nodes such as war weapons and turrets.
The enemy troops attacked the city walls and even entered the city. In the end, they were unable to fully occupy the city walls and towers, and were unable to control the entire Huaichuan City, and the victory was not decided.
Therefore, Xu Huai and Chen Zixiao stayed in Nancheng to take care of the defense of the east and west cities, and put 200 bodyguards under his command to ensure that after the reinforcements arrived, they could come in through Nancheng as quickly as possible; Xu Huai had leaders around him
More than a hundred guards and soldiers assisted in the defense of Beicheng...
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The course of the war was almost as predicted by Xu Huai.
The Red Guards cavalry dispersed and surrounded Huaichuan City. Zhong Changqing led his troops to form a formation outside the North City, and soon gathered more than ten teams of people and horses to attack the North City with several ladders at the same time.
At this time, outside the North City, Zhong Changqing's troops occupied it. There were no large numbers of elite archers approaching the city to snipe and suppress the city. The defenders could directly approach the crenellations and use bows and crossbows to suppress the enemy's speed.
The iron hooks were placed on the wall, and the logs and rocks fell one after another. Buckets of tung oil were poured down, killing and injuring the enemy troops immediately.
Zhong Changqing's soldiers still have a strong will to fight, but the city wall is enough to make up for the gap between the two sides.
At this time, the defenders on the North City were three to four times denser than before, and the generals were not so panicked. Under this situation, the Red Husbands did not need elite archers to suppress the city. If they wanted to directly attack the city, they would have to pay a lot of effort.
A heavy price to pay.
Zhong Changqing's troops were repulsed twice with heavy casualties. On the one hand, Mo Lihu sent cavalry to attack the east and west cities. On the other hand, he mobilized 200 elite archers to enter the north city position and used strong bows to suppress the defenders from leaving the crenellations.
Zhong Changqing's soldiers were able to successfully ascend the city.
It was unable to prevent the enemy from ascending the city, and the defenders did not insist on driving the enemy back immediately. Instead, they used the war shed built on the horse-faced wall as a fulcrum to use the layers of obstacles on the city wall to stalemate and entangle the enemy.
.
The enemy troops were blocked by obstacles and were confined in a narrow space, making it difficult for them to charge across the city wall. In front of the city wall, the defenders not only had more complete armor, but also had small war machines such as shield cars, sidecars, and tieri cars.
, after suppressing the panic in his heart, he struggled with the enemy who climbed the city without leaving any wind. The enemy who climbed the city were separated by important nodes such as horse-faced walls, war sheds, archery towers, and turrets.
The Red Husbands climbed the city from the east and west cities, and it was still like this. The soldiers guarded the horse-faced walls, war sheds, arrow towers and turrets. The elites even stayed at the north tower of the city. Even if a small group of soldiers marched into the city with ropes and set fire to it,
Still don't care.
Mo Lihu soon realized the intention of the defenders. On the one hand, he set fire to the city to create more chaos and caused the defenders to lose control of the city. On the other hand, he mobilized more armored elites to dismount and board the city to cooperate with Zhong Changqing's troops to attack.
The focus is entirely tilted towards Beicheng.
No matter what, we must seize the North City Gate before the Chushan reinforcements arrive.
Only by seizing control of the North City Gate before the Chushan reinforcements arrive, Zhong Changqing's troops are in Jiaopi, and there are still more than ten thousand infantrymen in Chaiji, can they have a chance to rush into the city and engage in street fighting with the Chushan reinforcements.
In Mo Lihu's eyes, Zhong Changqing's troops were still expendable.
Even if all 15,000 troops and horses are used up, it is absolutely worth it if they can severely damage the Chushan reinforcements and finally capture the city of Huaichuan.
For this reason, Mo Lihu directly sent a supervising team to stand behind Zhong Changqing's formation.
Mo Lihu has also sent a messenger to inform Yue Hailou's troops stationed in Zhenyang, Queshan, Xincai and other cities on the right bank of Ru River.
Yue Hailou's dismounted infantry was larger in size, but they only traveled upstream in Ru River and built a pontoon bridge near Shangcaicheng. Even if Yue Hailou dispatched his dismounted infantry in time, they would still have to make a detour of more than 200 miles, which would be the fastest.
We have to wait until this time tomorrow to arrive in Huaichuan to join the battle.
As the fighting on the northern city wall became more intense, the wall-mounted war tents at both ends were captured by the enemy one after another. Xu Huai's expression became colder and colder, and he ordered: "Prepare a fire attack to drive away this wave of enemy troops."
Get off the wall!"
Fire attack has been the most commonly used strategy since ancient times.
A small group of soldiers broke through the weak east and west cities, rushed into the city and set fire to it, which was a fire attack.
A small group of soldiers set fire to the buildings in the streets and alleys, which were mainly thatched houses. The fire spread rapidly, making Huaichuan City, where a large number of refugees were pouring in, increasingly chaotic. Refugees fleeing the fire were everywhere in the streets and alleys.
The internal mobilization channels between the North City and the East and West Cities were blocked by seas of fire and chaotic refugees, and they had to fight independently. On the one hand, it was more difficult for the magistrate Han Qiwen and other officials to assemble the village soldiers and village warriors;
Send it to the city wall in time.
Of course, the defenders also used fire to attack, pouring large barrels of tung oil and kerosene from the crenels towards the enemy troops in the attached city, setting fire to them, burning them to pieces, and wrapping the ladders in the fire.
It's just that ladders are easy to build, and burning a batch of them won't stop the enemy from attacking the city.
However, after the enemy attacked the city, this rough fire attack was of no use.
Large barrels of tung oil and kerosene were dumped, spilled, and flowed all over the city wall. This could temporarily curb the enemy's offensive, but it would also cause harm to oneself and ignite a large number of wooden obstacles on the city wall.
After Chihu Jianrui ascended the city, he was also good at using the ignited horses, deer antlers and other obstacles to fly over to the war tents guarded by the defenders.
If a rough fire attack won't work on the city wall, then use a delicate one.
Instead of pouring large pieces of kerosene, put it into porcelain jars or bottles, then light it when needed and throw it at the feet of the enemy soldiers or into the array...
