As for the Feng Army, according to Tang Yin's instructions, the Pingyuan Army mainly attacked Zhuyang County; the Tianying Army mainly attacked Hengshui County, and the Baizhan Army stationed in Baima and Yishu counties coordinated the operation; the Ninth Army and the New Army mainly attacked Kawakou County.
Let's talk about the Ninth Army and the New Army. They thought that it would be easy to capture Kawaguchi County, just like the previous counties captured without any bloodshed. In fact, it was just the opposite.
As soon as the two armies entered Kawaguchi County, they were attacked by the Kawaguchi Regional Army.
The Kawaguchi Army did not ambush the main force of the Ninth Army and the New Army. They did not have the strength. Instead, they quietly went behind the two armies and attacked the logistics supplies of the Ninth Army and the New Army.
The scale of this battle was small, and the Kawaguchi Army's troops were not many, but they were very elite. They caught the logistics and supply teams of both armies by surprise, and a large amount of food, grass, and military supplies were robbed and burned.
After hearing the news, Qi Heng's cavalry led a group of cavalry and quickly turned back for reinforcements, but when they returned, Kawaguchi's army had already disappeared without a trace.
Qi Heng was furious that he had suffered such a huge loss without even seeing the enemy in person. He immediately ordered the Ninth Army and the New Army to take Tingkou City in Kawakou County.
Tingkou City is located to the north of Kawakou County. If the Feng army wants to penetrate deep into the hinterland of Kawakou County, they must first capture Tingkou as a foothold.
According to the intelligence report, there were only over 5,000 local troops inside the pavilion, while the Ninth Army and the New Army had 200,000 troops. Taking over the pavilion would be a piece of cake.
In the siege battle, the Ninth Army could only play the role of cover and coercion. It was impossible to expect the heavy cavalry to rush up the city wall to attack the city. The task of frontal attack naturally fell on the new army.
Since its establishment, the New Army has been in the midst of battles and has extremely rich combat experience. It is certainly no problem to capture a small town guarded by only 5,000 people.
Liu Zhang only sent two regiments to fight. In his opinion, this was enough. There was no way the defenders could withstand the fierce attack of 20,000 of his own soldiers. But it turned out that he was wrong. After the war started, the situation was far less than he imagined.
smoothly.
The resistance of the 5,000 defenders was extremely tenacious and fierce. The two regiments of the Feng Army attacked and were repulsed. After several rounds of charges, they all returned without success and suffered considerable casualties.
Faced with such a situation, Liu Zhang was quite surprised, but it was already getting late after the battle, so he could only order to withdraw his troops and wait until tomorrow to fight again.
Back at the military camp, as soon as he entered the central military tent and his butt was still hot from sitting, Qi Heng came to the door angrily.
Qi Heng was very dissatisfied with the New Army's siege today. The mighty Central Army Corps could not defeat a small town garrisoned by only 5,000 local troops. When word spread, it was not only the New Army that was embarrassed, but also his.
Ninth Army.
In the Chinese army's tent, Qi Heng pointed at Liu Zhang's nose and shouted angrily in front of the new army generals: "What kind of bullshit battle are you fighting today? You can't even defeat a small town with 5,000 people. You're like this!"
How do you become the commander-in-chief of an army?"
Although Qi Heng is a Mo man, and there is no official reinstatement now, his qualifications in the army are comparable to those of Liu Zhang. Lao Xu stood up and said with an apologetic smile: "General Qi, I was indeed wrong in today's battle. General Qi also
To calm down the fire, please take a seat!"
"How can you sit still now?" Qi Heng had a hot temper. He came and went quickly. He held his waist with his hands and paced back and forth in the big tent. He shook his head and said angrily: "Since entering Kawakou
County, our army is not going well, now the logistics team is attacked, and now the attack is blocked, isn't this a joke for the Pingyuan Army and the Sky Eagle Army to see us?"
"Yes, yes, yes! General Qi is right!" Liu Zhang nodded in agreement.
In fact, he was very depressed because he did not capture the pavilion. He felt even more puzzled and unbelievable. Twenty thousand versus ten thousand, the Feng Army versus the An Army, the Chinese Army versus the Local Army. Regardless of the strength of the troops and combat power, our own side had an absolute advantage. How could it be possible?
Can't beat it?
He turned to look at the two commanders of the 7th and 8th Corps, who were mainly attacking today, and asked: "General Mao and General Gong, when you two were commanding the siege, did you think there were really 5,000 defenders in the city?
"
After hearing his question, Qi Heng stopped and looked at Mao Yi, commander of the 7th Corps of the New Army, and Gong Dan, commander of the 8th Corps of the New Army without blinking.
Mao Yi's face was full of shame, he lowered his head and whispered: "There are indeed only a few thousand defenders, but...but..."
"But what? Say what you have to say in one go!" Liu Zhang said in a deep voice.
"But there are many spiritual cultivators among the defenders." Mao Yi whispered. As soon as he finished speaking, Gong Dan immediately answered: "Yes, there are many spiritual cultivators wearing Anjun armor among the defenders.
It’s unclear how many people there are specifically, but they are definitely not a minority. These spiritual cultivators are extremely powerful. Even if our soldiers finally rushed to the top of the city, they were quickly defeated by them..."
"This does not become an excuse for you to be disadvantaged in the battle!" Qi Heng snorted coldly.
Mao Yi and Gong were both red-faced and their heads were lowered. They said in a trembling voice: "The general will not be successful in the battle. Please punish me."
Liu Zhang waved his hand. The battle had already been fought like this, so there was no point in punishing them anymore.
He thought for a moment, then turned to look at Qi Heng and asked: "General Qi, do you still remember that when we were in Yuzhen, the king seemed to have mentioned once that rangers from all over the country gathered in Kawaguchi County."
Qi Heng blinked, frowned and tried to remember. After a while, he said vaguely: "It seems... there is such a thing! Liu Zhang, do you think there are rangers among the defenders in the city?"
"There is only one explanation, otherwise, where would those many spiritual cultivators come from?" Liu Zhang said quietly: "It seems that the news the king received is true. Kawaguchi County... I am afraid it is not as bad as we imagined.
Good to fight!"
He was worried, but Qi Heng grinned happily and said, "If this is really the case, that would be a good thing."
"how to say?"
"The king has always hated rangers. If Kawaguchi County really has many rangers from all over the country, then it will be a great opportunity for you and me to make meritorious deeds." Qi Heng rolled his eyes and was so happy that he could not open his mouth from ear to ear.
"Tomorrow, I will go out to fight in person, but I want to see how many rangers there are among the defenders in the city." Qi Heng suddenly became more motivated and said enthusiastically.
Bai An and Yan Yan both nodded and said to Liu Zhang: "General, we will go to battle with General Qi tomorrow!"
Liu Zhang did not refuse. It was shameful that a small town in Tingkou was not captured on the first day. If it could not be captured on the second day, the morale of the entire army would be greatly affected. Therefore, tomorrow’s siege battle
, can only succeed and never allow failure again.
Thinking of this, he cheered up and said seriously: "Except for the 7th and 8th corps, which are staying in camp to rest and recuperate, the rest of the corps will go out to fight tomorrow! The first and second corps will mainly attack the North City of Tingkou, and the third and fourth corps will
, focus on attacking the south city of Tingkou, the 5th and 6th Corps will focus on attacking the west city, and the 9th and 10th Corps will focus on attacking the east city. Tomorrow, all generals must work together to capture the entrance of the pavilion in one go!"
"Yes!" All the generals stood up and stepped in to take the order.
However, before the new army could go out to battle tomorrow, that night, late at night, the An army in Tingkou sent a small group of elite troops to sneak attack the Dongying of the Feng army.
One of the New Army and the Ninth Army was an infantry corps, and the other was a cavalry corps. Their camps were not combined, but were set up separately. The New Army's camp was in front, and the Ninth Army's camp was behind.
There were only 200 An troops in the camp, and they attacked the camp of the New Army. The An army relied on their familiarity with the terrain and the Feng army's lack of precautions to successfully sneak into the camp and seize the grain depot located in the east camp of the New Army.
Burn.
The flames of this fire shot up to a height of more than ten meters, lighting up most of the New Army's eastern camp in red.
After receiving the news from the soldiers below, Liu Zhang hurriedly ran out of his sleeping tent without even wearing his armor, and went outside to take a look. Well, he could clearly see the fire in Dongying from here in the central military tent.
Liu Zhang took a breath and asked the soldier who reported the news urgently: "Where is the fire?"
"It's... the granary of our army!"
"Ah?" After hearing this, Liu Zhang's head buzzed. The logistics team had been attacked before, and his own food and grass had not been replenished in time. If the army's food depot was burned down again, his own army would be without food, and the entire army of 100,000 people would be out of food.
What will the soldiers eat next?
At this time, Liu Zhang's eyes turned red with rage. He pushed away the soldiers who reported the news, untied a war horse outside the sleeping tent, jumped on it, urged the horse, and ran quickly towards the east camp.
The surrounding guards were startled and shouted: "General, be careful, General, slow down!" While shouting, they threw their legs away, and then chased after him.
Liu Zhang didn't care whether the guards behind him were following him, and kept urging the horse to run wildly. After a short time, he ran to the spot where the fire broke out in Dongying, sat on the horse and looked up, and saw that the huge grain depot had now become
There was a sea of fire, with countless soldiers pouring water to extinguish the fire, and many soldiers desperately trying to rescue food from the sea of fire. How could this be happening with shouts everywhere! Seeing this, Liu Zhang was also dumbfounded, and only five
How could the enemy's army of thousands have the courage to sneak attack on one's own army camp of 100,000 people? How could the An army of Kawaguchi County be so powerful?
He urged his horse and rushed into the crowd, shouting loudly to the surrounding soldiers: "Put out the fire! Put out the fire quickly! Who knows where the enemy troops who have stolen the camp are?"
"Report to the general, the enemy has escaped!"
"Where to run..."
Before he could finish speaking, suddenly, swish, swish, swish, more than a dozen crossbow arrows shot out from behind, left, and behind him. This incident happened so suddenly that no one could have imagined that there would be someone in the crowd of Feng Army soldiers.
Someone shot a cold arrow at Liu Zhang.
If Liu Zhang was wary at this time, no matter how many crossbow arrows he fired, they might not be able to hurt him, but now his mind was on the burning grain and grass, and he never thought that there would be enemies lurking among his soldiers.
Following several muffled sounds of arrows piercing his flesh, Liu Zhang screamed in pain and fell off his horse.