On July 30th, Dong Zhuo led his army back to Luoyang. The officials left behind in Luoyang went out to welcome the Prime Minister as usual, but the sight in front of them made them extremely uneasy.
Before leaving the army, the Liang army was said to have gathered elites and all their fierce generals. They had raised horses in Shanglin Garden and Xianyang Garden for decades, and the Luoyang arsenal had stocked all the armored soldiers from all over the world. All of them were emptied out for them. When they left, there were almost no people in the Liang army.
People lead horses, and horses with strong legs are used as transfer horses by them. Various variegated pack horses are used, and mares carry sundries for them: pockets, full body armor, long bones, cutters, and armor piercers.
, crossbows, horn-end bows and other items, as well as rice, millet, dry food, fine wine, change of clothes, etc. that are so full that the packhorse trembles.
But when the troops came back, everyone was wounded, hungry, thirsty, scarred and physically and mentally exhausted, the baggage was almost empty, and so many horses were dead that these Liang knights had to take turns riding one.
Horse.
When the officials came to the front to greet Prime Minister Dong Zhuo from the car, they saw that Prime Minister Dong Zhuo's shoulders were also wrapped in linen with large dark brown blood stains on them. He was obviously seriously injured. Almost everyone turned pale with sadness at this time.
It's just that those who flatter Dong Zhuo are worried about the future, and those who hate Dong Zhuo are just pretending to be hypocritical.
Dong Zhuo had no intention of quarreling with them, and just snorted coldly: "It's just a minor injury, it won't kill anyone." He then dismissed the Luoyang officials and asked each general to lead his troops back to Xianyang Garden to rest and resupply, and ordered the nearest secrets to be moved.
After arriving at the mansion, he finally sent envoys to Beimang Mountain to greet Dong Yue and Jia Xu to the mansion to discuss matters.
When Dong Yue and Jia Xu came, Dong Zhuo was lying on the couch. A concubine was massaging his head and acupuncture points, and two concubines were boiling the concoction in the room, so that the house was filled with a bitter smell.
Dong Zhuo heard the sound and saw that it was the two of them. He asked straight to the point: "What has happened to Meng Jin in the past few days? Has anyone done anything?"
Dong Yue answered honestly: "The Prime Minister ordered me to go to the river bank every day to observe Mengjin from a distance. However, from a distance, I found that the men were still building the city on the sandbank in the past few days, and there was no sign of crossing the river to attack the city."
At this time, the maid boiled the concoction and poured the black and green concoction into the jade bowl. She boasted for a while and then fed it into the mouth of the Prime Minister.
After swallowing the juice, he opened his eyes and signaled the maid to continue the massage. Dong Yue then continued to talk.
"But there are indeed changes in the north coast, and there are quite a few."
Dong Zhuo raised his voice and said "hmm" to show that he was very concerned about this matter.
"A large number of ships are being searched and built on the north bank, far exceeding the number needed to cross the river. According to scouts' inquiries, there are no less than 500 ships gathered in Guangmengjin on the north bank. I don't know how many ships are being built on the north bank. According to me
It is estimated that the number of ships in hand is probably more than 700."
After saying this, Dong Zhuo stood up immediately. He accidentally pulled the wound, so that his face became quite ferocious. It took a long time to calm down. The Prime Minister asked the maids to retreat to the side compartment, and he picked up the medicine bowl and drank the medicine juice.
After that, he asked: "Why does he want so many ships? Could it be that Liu Bei's reinforcements are coming?"
Dong Yue shook his head and said: "I had the same suspicion at first, so I sent scouts to the north bank every day to investigate the crossing, but found nothing. No matter how I inquired, there was no sign of reinforcements arriving, and no baggage was transported from Tianjing Pass."<
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Strange. Both Dong Zhuo and Dong Yue thought this way.
Pingjin captain Jia Xu was silent for a long time, and now he said: "It's probably not the arrival of reinforcements." He told what he had seen in the past few days, "I also followed General Zhonglang to inspect the situation, and I thought so at the beginning.
, but when I went to the river bank again in the past few days, I saw people floating in boats in the river, knocking things on the waves. I touched the cattails and took a closer look, only to find that they were all wooden piles."
"Those piles one foot each were dug into the river, but they actually survived the waves. As of yesterday, they had laid more than 30 piles. According to my subordinates, they probably planned to build a bridge or a pontoon bridge on the river," Jia Xu said.
At this point, his tone paused, and he himself felt it was ridiculous, but in the end he affirmed: "There is nothing else to think about."
Dong Zhuo was silent for a moment after hearing the words, and he pondered: "If this is the case, it can be said that no one has been able to build the Mengjin River Bridge since ancient times. Chen Tingjian relied on his talent and despised the ancients, so he was indeed able to do such a thing. But if he fails, he will not be able to do it.
Well, if he builds it..."
Thinking of the military situation around Luoyang after the army on the north bank crossed the bridge, Dong Zhuo shuddered. He stood up and quickly gave Dong Yue an order: "Eradicate Nanguan! As soon as possible! Now that the main force of our army has been greatly damaged, if Chen Chong is allowed to build the river bridge,
All the passes on the north bank are in vain, where will Luoyang defend them?"
Late that night, Dong Yue camped at the foot of Mang Mountain, cut down the trees, and gathered craftsmen and warriors to make siege equipment such as wooden poles, ladders, rams, lead vehicles, and leaking vehicles. On the first day of August, Dong Yue personally supervised the battle and ordered his subordinates to
Mengjin Nanguan was besieged on three sides, but before they led their troops to Nanguan, they couldn't help but be shocked and said: "How can such a strong city be easily lost to the northern captives?"
When General He Jin established the Mengjin and Xiaopingjin passes, he thought that the river defense was not as good as the mountain passes. After all, the river was thousands of miles away and it was difficult to take care of it everywhere, so he focused on repairing the riverside passes.
When repairing the city gates all over the world, rammed earth is mainly used, and a few imperfections are covered with bricks and stones. However, the two gates in Mengjin and Xiaopingjin are particularly different. After setting up rammed earth as the foundation, He Jin covered them all with
The bricks and stones were glued with rice slurry, and the city wall was erected three feet high. The shape of the wall was a concave arc, so that people in Liang didn't know where to start if they wanted to attract ants.
When Dong Zhuo led his army southward, the soldiers of Nanguan did not relax. They dug waterways on the riverside day and night to lead the river water to the bottom of the city pass. Shazhou New City could send reinforcements by floating boats directly to the center of Nanguan City. And the excavated beach
The mud built barriers on the tidal flats to cover the ferries. If the Liang people wanted to conquer Nanguan, they had to remove these barriers one by one.
On the day of the siege, it was raining in autumn. The Liang people surrounded Nanguan from the east, south and west. The surging river could not surround the north, so they floated pine trees from the upper reaches and tried to block the water channel dug out of Nanguan. However, the sandbar was built
In Xincheng, people soon entered the river by boat and used long hooks to hook open the pine trees. The layers of pine trees rolled repeatedly under the impact of the river water, as if countless pieces of silk thread had been cut off, one by one in the tiny needles.
Straightened out, it was quickly washed further downstream.
The Liang people knew that this was not the solution, so they could only attack the barrier on the bank of the river first. They collectively pushed the lead cart forward. Both sides of the lead cart were wooden walls to block arrows from the barrier and the city. Although the effect was not good,
Okay, but the lead cart was too heavy. When it was pushed dozens of steps away from the barrier, it sank deeply into the mud of the river beach. The soldiers who pushed the cart couldn't exert their strength, so they had to go out to fight, and were quickly beaten by the guards.
Come back.
Only the lead train from the south successfully reached the gate, but the other people had already filled the gate with mud and rocks. They were unable to climb the wall, and there was nothing they could do with the brick wall. In the end, they used the lead train as a barrier and blocked their way.
He piled mountains of earth at the corners of the city, tried to connect them to the city walls, and then stormed into the city.
This was a good idea. Dong Yue commanded the men and horses to take turns digging the soil and transporting it to the corner of the city with the arrows on the lead cart. However, the lead cart was too slow. After two days, although not many men and horses were lost, the mountain of earth was still piled up.
Two feet, they piled earth, and the guards piled wood on the wall to make a frame, raising the wall more than ten feet. Seeing this, the Liang people complained to their superiors: When can the city be broken if this continues? Dong Yue then
At the military meeting, he comforted and said: The enemy is defending the city like this, obviously because they are afraid of our army like a tiger. No matter how high they can pile up the wall, it will only be a matter of time before they break the city.
That same night, a cavalry force of more than 300 people was smuggled in from Beiguan, walked up the mountains and forests from the lower reaches, and suddenly broke into Dong Yue's front camp. The guards were caught off guard, and the cavalry army set fire to the camp. p>
In the front camp, there are piles of various ladders, carriages, floor carts, and ropes and mulberry trees in the corners, all of which are necessary for attacking the city. It stands to reason that in the autumn rain, the front camp is adjacent to the river bank, and the air is humid, so arson is a special issue.
It was not easy, but there were wood chips planed by carpenters scattered on the land. The cavalry threw down the torch, and the wood chips were stained with sparks. In an instant, a fire ignited. Within half an hour, the fire burned from the front camp all the way to the middle army, and black smoke billowed like
The tide can be faintly seen even in Luoyang City.
Fortunately, the cavalry knew that they were outnumbered, so they left immediately after setting the fire. The people fled, put out the fires, and gave notifications. The camp became a buzzing mess, which soon spread to the entire army. People came and went constantly.
In the bright firelight of Beimang Mountain, the figures looked extremely dim, but fortunately there was no camp roar. After one night, Dong Yue sent people to count the number of people. Only more than fifty people in the army died in the fire. This made Dong Yue relax.
Tone.
But looking back at Nanguan, the Nanguan guards took advantage of the Liang people to put out the fire and went out of the city to bulldoze earth and dig trenches. They put the ashes into bamboo baskets, sealed them with basket lids, and then rolled the bamboo baskets down the slope into the river.
The soldiers on the riverside dumped and cleaned the bamboo baskets, and then moved them to fill them with earth. Repeatedly, overnight, the four mountains of earth erected by the Liang army in three days were all bulldozed by the guards.
All kinds of equipment in the Liang people's camp were now only ashes. Several days of hard work had been in vain. Even Dong Yue was quite discouraged. When Dong Zhuo came to inspect the next day, he directly reported to him: "Dong
During the war in the north and south of Vietnam, most of them were high mountains and plains. After all, they were not good at water attack, so they asked the prime minister to send other generals."
Prime Minister Dong Zhuo saw that the morale of the army was low, but he had no other option. The other generals fought bloody battles for the rest of their lives, and it would be difficult for them to fight again in a short time. Moreover, his men were either from the cold side or from the side, so how could there be any generals who were good at water warfare?
He could only comfort Dong Yue and said: "Victory and defeat are commonplace. How can there be anyone in the world who is born knowing how to fight? Yesterday, there was a fortune teller in the city who predicted the victory or defeat. The fortune-teller predicted the victory and defeat. He made a prediction on the Sunda Mountain and got a Yi hexagram, saying that our army is in great danger.
If I go there, I will benefit from the great river. I can see that the sun is shining on me, and I will eventually win. This is just a small setback."
The sergeants and soldiers in the army were superstitious, and after hearing this, they all became excited again. They discussed among themselves, saying that Mengjin has not built a river bridge since ancient times, which shows that even the saints cannot do it. No matter how good Chen Chong is in fighting, how can he surpass the saints?