Just when Qin Wei came to Kyoto, Yunyan City and Yuwen Chengdu were standing on the city wall wearing iron armor, looking extremely cold and handsome.
He looked up at the sky, only to see that the sky was extremely gloomy, and heavy clouds kept coming, bringing depression and dullness.
Just like the current situation faced by Yunyan City, it is difficult to breathe.
"They did come after all!"
Yuwen Chengdu looked at the vast grassland in the north and let out a long breath.
In the north, on the endless grassland, densely packed tents form one area with no end in sight.
The horses' hooves galloping around were like waves, moving turbulently.
Ever since he defeated the Rong army last time, Yuwen Chengdu had been filled with a sense of uneasiness, and just three days ago, he finally knew where this uneasiness came from.
The royal courts of the four great Rong tribes and an army of 500,000 Rong tribes came to the gates of Yunyan City.
But now there are less than 20,000 defenders in Yunyan City. If the opponent attacks the city, it won't take long to break the city.
Even if Yu Wencheng has a literary and military strategy, he still feels helpless when faced with such a situation.
"Lord Commander-in-Chief!"
Wang Han quickly came behind Yuwen Chengdu and bowed his hands.
Yuwen Chengdu nodded slightly and asked, "When will the reinforcements arrive?"
Wang Han replied: "The general has already asked for help from the surrounding Guancheng and fortresses. The nearby fortresses have received orders and are expected to arrive at Yunyan City in the afternoon. As for the other Guancheng, it is estimated that they will have to wait until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
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The defense fortifications on the northern border of Dali are mainly Guancheng and fortresses. There are about a dozen Guancheng such as Yunyan City and Xiangshan City distributed along the border of thousands of miles. There are hundreds of Guancheng under each Guancheng.
Fortresses and piers.
The soldiers that Yunyan City can currently mobilize are the defenders in the fortresses and piers under Yunyan City. However, their number is not large, and they can only gather about 30,000 soldiers.
After all, they also participated in the previous battle of Yunyan City, and the casualties were not small.
At this time, the only people who can really come to help Yunyan City are the garrison troops in other Guan cities and the garrison troops in Qinzhou behind.
It's just that neither the other garrison of Guancheng nor the garrison of Qinzhou can reach Yunyan City in a short time.
In other words, Yuwen Chengdu and the others must persist for three to five days.
However, the Rong army is about to attack the city, and it is uncertain whether Yunyan City can withstand a wave of attacks, let alone three to five days.
Yuwen Chengdu looked at the Rong army gathering outside the city with a heavy expression.
Three days!
If he couldn't hold on for three days, Yunyan City would surely fall.
Once Yunyan City falls, the land of Qinzhou behind will be ravaged by hundreds of thousands of Rong troops.
He looked back at the entire Yunyan City and the mountains on the east and west sides of Yunyan City, with a look of perseverance on his face.
Yunyan City is a pass city, located between two mountain peaks, guarding the northern part of Qinzhou. It occupies a favorable location and is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
But now Yunyan City is short of major generals, with less than 20,000 troops. It is simply impossible to resist hundreds of thousands of troops.
If you want to defend Yunyan City, you must make some decisions.
Seeing that the Rong army outside the city has gathered, the siege is about to begin.
Yuwen Chengdu said with a determined expression: "Send the order and retreat to half the city!"
"Retreat to half the city!" Wang Han was a little puzzled.
"That's right, retreat to half the city."
Yuwen Chengdu nodded calmly.
Although the Rong army is mainly composed of cavalry, since they have come to Yunyan City, they must be well prepared to attack the city, and there are many various siege equipment.
With Yunyan City's current military strength and military supplies, it is simply impossible to block the opponent.
They may even suffer serious losses from the opponent's siege equipment.
Under the crazy attack of hundreds of catapults and crossbows, it was very difficult to defend the city wall.
Therefore, Yuwen Chengdu absolutely retreated to half of the city, completely abandoned the northern city wall, and turned to the southern city wall as the basis for defense.
The buildings in the city will limit the use of siege equipment and the number of Rong offensive troops. In this way, the pressure they face will be much less.
But correspondingly, they will have no way to retreat. Once they retreat to the southern city wall, they will only have one line of defense. Once this line of defense is lost, they will have no way to retreat even if they want to.
"Also prepare to burn the city!"
Yuwen Chengdu looked up at the sky and said in a deep voice.
There is no wind today, which is perfect for burning the city.
Yunyan City is dominated by north wind.
Wang Han looked extremely heavy, but he did not raise any objections because he knew very well that at this time they had no choice but to sink their boats and fight.
"I will obey your orders!" Wang Han responded loudly.
Then, the soldiers in the city began to take action.
Everything that could be burned in the city was piled up in the streets and alleys. Even grain, grass, weapons, etc. were all taken out, and only five days of rations were reserved for each soldier.
As thick smoke billowed, the city that had stood for thousands of years was engulfed in flames in a matter of seconds.
The burning fire burned the city and blocked the Rong tribe's attack, but it still did not relieve Yunyan City's crisis.
And as the news spread that hundreds of thousands of Rong troops were approaching Yunyan City, the entire northern frontier army fell into panic. When the news reached Kyoto, the entire Dali was in shock, and the court hall was full of people.
It seemed like a big earthquake had occurred.
…
Five hundred miles southeast of Yunyan City, a large army was marching towards Yunyan City.
Bai Qi was riding a horse in the army, his expression equally solemn.
When he received Yunyan City's request for help a day ago, he immediately led half of Xiangshan City's border troops to provide support.
Last time, he went to support the battle of Yunyan City, for which they sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers in Xiangshan City. I didn't expect that just over half a month had passed, and he would lead the army to support Yunyan City again.
"Report!"
A cavalry scout galloped over and reported to Bai Qi: "General Cavalry, there is a fire burning the city in Yunyan City, and the Rong army has suspended its attack on the city."
Bai Qi frowned slightly when he heard this, but soon his frown relaxed.
He had already guessed that Yuwen Chengdu deliberately burned down the city to block the Rong army's attack.
"Explore again!"
"Here!"
"Fei Ling!" Bai Qi called.
"The general is here!" A burly general responded immediately.
"I will lead the cavalry to Yunyan City first, and I will leave this place to you," Bai Qi said.
Yuwen Chengdu had already chosen to burn the city. The situation in Yunyan City was more dangerous than he imagined. He did not want to waste time with the army and wanted to rush to Yunyan City as soon as possible.
Although he currently has only 5,000 cavalry under his command, no matter what, having 5,000 cavalry is better than nothing.
"General, I will obey your orders!" Fei Ling responded.
After Bai Qi explained a few more words, he led the cavalry in a hurry towards Yunyan City.
…
Liangzhou, Liangzhou City.
Li Ru was sitting in the study room inside the Chief Secretary's Yamen.
In front of him were two middle-aged men wearing crimson official robes. These two were Liangzhou Chief Secretary Lu Chengxuan and Li Juncheng, who were Li Ru's confidants in the Chief Secretary.
At this time, Li Ru was looking at the military intelligence report coming from Yunyan City.
It stands to reason that such military information would not be delivered to him immediately. After all, he is only the chief envoy, not the commander-in-chief.
But now Li Ru has a very high prestige in the Liangzhou Sansi Yamen, so when the Liangzhou Dusi received the military information, it was delivered to him as soon as possible.
"Sir, if Yunyan City is lost, the Rong army will enter the hinterland of Qinzhou. Once Qinzhou is ravaged by the Rong army, I am afraid that Liangzhou will not be immune to disaster." Lu Chengxuan said in a deep voice.
He didn't know the specific relationship between Li Ru and Yuwen Chengdu. He just considered the consequences if Yunyan City fell from Liangzhou's perspective.
Li Ru's eyebrows were twisted into a knot, he must be thinking more than Lu Chengxuan.
The fall of Yunyan City will not only affect Qinzhou, but also the entire northern border. Once this gap is opened, the Rong people will surge like a river that has burst its banks.
By then, not to mention Qinzhou and Liangzhou, the entire northern region of Dali will be plunged into war.
Moreover, the frontier troops in the northern part of Dali will also be passive.
Especially in addition to the Rong tribe in the north, there are also some royal courts in the west of Dali. Faced with such an opportunity, they would definitely not mind taking a hand.
Once Dali is weak, he will be coveted by countless surrounding royal courts. Now that Dali is experiencing internal and external troubles, those honest tame beasts will show their fangs and wait for an opportunity to bite Dali.
In the past, Dali was so strong that the surrounding royal courts did not dare to provoke him. Now, as soon as Dali showed signs of exhaustion, these royal courts jumped out impatiently.
Liangzhou is located in the northwest corner of Dali and faces the greatest external pressure.
Thinking of this, Li Ru felt a headache.
"What are the actions of the border troops?" Li Ru asked.
Li Juncheng replied: "The border army does not dare to act rashly. Recently, the Fire Worshiping Court in the West has shown signs of mobilizing its army."
Li Ru sighed and said: "In this case, we cannot support Yunyan City and Qinzhou."
"Dusi Yamen can mobilize some troops, but at most it can only mobilize the Beiliang Guards." Li Juncheng said.
There are seven guards under the Yuanzhou Dusi Yamen, among which the Beiliang Guards is the one closest to the border army.
"Then let them support Yunyan City!"
Li Ru said directly without any hesitation.
"Also, I will write another letter later and you will send someone to deliver it to Beiyuan City!"
With the war starting in the north, how could Beiyuan City be left out?
But now Li Ru doesn't know if Beiyuan City will help.
Although Beiyuan City has always helped Dali guard the north, this time is different. Ever since the news of the destruction of Shangyuan Sect spread to the north, Beiyuan City has shrunk its troops and cannot leave the city.
Even though they were married to Qin Wei, they still maintained a defensive attitude.
Apparently they were very dissatisfied with the fall of Shangyuan Sect.
It's just that the Shangyuan Sect was apparently destroyed by the Qiyuan Sect, so even if he was dissatisfied, he didn't speak out.
But if he wanted to let him help Dali guard the north at this time, Li Ru could only see if they would give Qin Wei face.