At this time, Tang Yin did not know the news that Liang Qi and Shangguan Yuanrang had successfully attacked Tongmen. The 400,000-strong Tianyuan Army had arrived at the county seat of Lehu County, Xibai.
An army of 400,000 people surrounded the huge Western Hundred City and set up camp around the city. Looking up, the tents were connected to each other, and the edges could not be seen at a glance. Inside the camp, flags were fluttering, embroidered ribbons were fluttering, and soldiers were
Like a forest, its momentum can only be seen in wars between vassal states.
Before Tian Yuan's army arrived at Xibai City, Geng Qiang didn't feel anything. But now that the troops were approaching the city, Geng Qiang stood on the top of the city and looked out. He couldn't help but feel frightened secretly. There was a chill behind his back. At this time,
He regretted a little, regretting that he really shouldn't have considered his face and insisted on staying in Lehu County to resist Tang Yin's army. The Tianyuan Army was so large in number, could his own army of less than 100,000 resist it?
Seeing that Geng Qiang's face was ugly, his eyes were looking straight at the enemy camp, his fists were clenched tightly, and his nervousness was naturally revealed. A counselor named Qu Rang next to him advised: "My lord, don't worry.
Our western hundred cities have thick walls and strong defenses, so even if the enemy has millions of troops, they will not be afraid!"
Qu Rang was one of the main combatants under Geng Qiang. Geng Qiang wanted to stay in Xibai City to resist the Tianyuan Army, which coincided with his intention. Another counselor, Yu Jun, shook his head and looked quietly beside him.
Said: "The Tianyuan Army is said to have an army of 500,000, but our army is only 80,000. Once a war breaks out, how will we resist?"
Huh! Qu Rang sneered in his heart when he heard this. On the surface, he pretended to be calm and asked, "What does Mr. Yu Jun mean..."
"When His Highness the Second Highness joined forces with the 400,000 Ning Army to attack Tianyuan County, they were defeated by the Tianyuan Army before they even reached Tianguan. The Second Highness died in the battle and more than half of the 400,000 Ning Army was lost. This shows that the Tianyuan Army is definitely not
Tang Yin is by no means easy to grieve for the mob. Now that the Tianyuan army is approaching the city, our army wants to resist 500,000 with 80,000, which is not realistic. I hope you can make arrangements early!" Yu Jun said seriously.
"What arrangements are there?" Geng Qiang looked at Yu Jun.
"While the two sides are not at war yet, if you can take the initiative to offer the city, surrender to the Tianyuan Army, and turn the hostility into friendship, it will be a blessing to the hundreds of thousands of people in the city and a blessing to our officers and soldiers. Tang Yin will definitely use you. If you wait for both sides
If you hand over your hands, there will be no room for maneuver in the situation. Even if you want to surrender, you will..."
Before Jun could finish his words, Qu Rang flushed with anger and shouted: "How brave! In front of the two armies, you actually persuaded me to surrender to the enemy. What are your intentions?" As he spoke, he turned around.
He bowed to Geng Qiang and saluted, and said in a deep voice: "Sir, Yu Jun's evil words have deceived the people and shaken the morale of the army. Your Excellency, you should be punished according to military law!"
Geng Qiang looked at Qu Rang, then at Yu Jun, and sighed secretly. These two counselors were his confidants. One of them was responsible for fighting and the other was surrendering. It sounded reasonable, but from the bottom of his heart, Geng
Qiang still hopes to fight.
He was silent for a moment, then waved his hand and said: "I am deeply grateful for the kindness of your Majesty. Even if I die on the battlefield and my body is wrapped in horse leather, I will never betray your Majesty. No matter who you are in the future, you can never surrender lightly. Otherwise, you can
Don't blame me for being ruthless!" After saying this, he glared at Yu Jun fiercely, flicked his sleeves, and walked towards the city.
"Haha, Mr. Yu Jun, did you hear what I said?!" Qu Rang glanced at Yu Jun proudly and quickly followed Geng Qiang.
Qu Rang and Yu Jun were both Geng Qiang's confidants, but the two had always been at odds with each other and always had different opinions. They were intrigues and secret rivals.
Yu Jun looked at Geng Qiang's leaving figure, looked up to the sky and sighed, murmuring: "The mantis uses his arm as a chariot to bring about his own destruction. The general will be stupid and thousands of people will suffer!"
Hearing this, the soldiers standing guard all around shrank their necks in fright. Someone stepped forward and whispered softly: "Sir, please don't say that again, in case it reaches the ears of your Excellency..."
Yu Jun waved his hands, shook his head and sighed, and slowly walked down the city.
Geng Qiang did not listen to Yu Jun's advice and took a posture of holding on to the city.
At the same time, Tang Yin was also discussing the strategy of attacking the city with his soldiers.
Although the Tianyuan Army is coming with great force and momentum, there are also hidden dangers. Lack of food and grass is a big problem.
With the power of three counties to support an army of 500,000, the food and grass was only enough. Liang Qi and Shangguan Yuan asked the commander of the 100,000 and three water troops to sneak attack Tongmen and take away a large amount of food and grass. This reduced the Tianyuan Army's food and grass.
The reserves were already very tight, and then another batch was burned by Mao An. The problem of insufficient food and grass was immediately exposed. Now, Tianyuan County, Guannan County, and Jinguang County have transported all the food reserves to the army, but even so, the food in the army
It is only enough for one month, which means that the war must be ended within one month, otherwise, the Tianyuan Army will be in a dilemma of having no food to eat.
Because of the problem of food and grass, the mood of the officers and men was very urgent. In the Chinese army tent, the generals headed by Xiao Muqing all suggested that they must launch an attack on Xibai City immediately, and strive to capture Xibai within three days, and then use all their strength
Attack Yancheng.
Tang Yin felt that what the generals said was reasonable, and immediately issued an order for the entire army to attack the city.
Before attacking the city, the Tianyuan Army also sent an envoy as usual, holding a white flag to the gate of Xibaicheng, asking Geng Qiang to come out and speak. When Geng Qiang came to the top of the city, the envoy was moved with emotion and reason, and advised him
Geng Qiang raised the city and surrendered. Geng Qiang was determined to fight, but he could still listen to the words of the Tianyuan Army envoy. He immediately ordered a volley of random arrows to shoot the envoy to death.
Unfortunately, the envoy became a living target of Peng's army at the foot of Xibai City. He and his horse were shot into hedgehogs. Geng Qiang shot the envoy of Tianyuan army, completely losing the possibility of negotiation between the two sides. Tang Yin issued an order to the general.
, the Pingyuan Army attacked the east gate of Xibaicheng, the Chifeng Army attacked the west gate, the Directly Affiliated Army attacked the north gate, and a small group of Tianyuan Army harassed the west gate and attacked from all sides.
As Tang Yin's general conveyed the message, the Tianyuan Army, which had traveled a long distance, did not take any rest and immediately went back to the fierce battle to attack the city.
This battle was very difficult for both sides. The city defense of Xibai City is indeed strong. It is a county city in itself. The city walls are high, thick and extremely strong. Geng Qiang has been reinforcing Xibai City since the Tianyuan Army raised its troops.
The city defense of a hundred cities made the city wall more than half the length of its original height. There were so many sticks, rocks and other defensive weapons on the city head that they piled up like a mountain. With 80,000 soldiers, they were condescending, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.
The Tianyuan Army's siege equipment is now transported to the army. Large siege weapons such as trebuchets, city-breaking crossbows, army-breaking crossbows, and movable archery towers have brought huge siege weapons to the defenders on the top of the city.
Threats, rush cars designed to break through city walls and thunder cars designed to break through city gates also put great pressure on the city defense.
The two sides fought, arrows flew back and forth, boulders shuttled through the air, scores of soldiers fell under the powerful fire of arrows and crossbows, countless soldiers were smashed into meat patties by the flying boulders, and there were cries of killing and screams on the battlefield.
There was a continuous sound, fires were everywhere, and thick smoke was billowing. On all four sides of the city walls, life-and-death fighting was going on everywhere. Not to mention the bottom of the city, there was a whole layer of corpses piled up in the moat, and the river water was dyed scarlet.
Blood and water.
This was a tragic battle in which the enemy suffered one thousand losses and we suffered eight hundred losses.
The Tianyuan Army attacked the city in the morning and continued until late at night. The attacking army was replaced by one regiment after another. Many regiments had already fought for three rounds, and the officers and men were extremely exhausted.
The situation in Xibai City was not much better. How could the 80,000 soldiers withstand the 400,000-strong Tianyuan Army attacking from all sides? With a shortage of manpower, Geng Qiang directly ordered the guards around him to arrest people in the city.
, as long as they were strong men, they were all brought to the top of the city. They didn't even have armor. They were only given a spear each and immediately participated in defending the city.
Under Geng Qiang's almost crazy persistence, the Tianyuan Army took the lead in retreating. Tang Yin accepted Zhang Zhe's opinion and temporarily stopped attacking the city to rest first. The Tianyuan Army's retreat made both soldiers on the battlefield breathe a sigh of relief.
After only one battle, only 50,000 of the 80,000 defenders in Xibai City were left. As for the dead men, countless men were killed, and the Tianyuan Army's casualties were also upwards of 50,000. Looking at the battlefield, there were corpses all over the ground.
and weapons, as well as arrows stuck on the ground like straw. Such a brutal battle is rare.
It can be said that the strength of Xibai City is beyond the expectations of Tang Yin and his generals. With such a strong city defense and such tenacious resistance, it would be considered fast to capture Xibai City in ten days or even a month, let alone three days.
"damn it!"
In the Chinese army tent, Shangguan Yuan Biao pulled his neck and yelled: "If Geng Qiang hadn't ignored the lives of the people in the city and captured a large number of people to resist our army, we would have invaded the city long ago!"
Geng Qiang's use of force to capture strong men to participate in the defense of the city was indeed something no one expected. Xibaiwei County is the largest city in Lehu County. There must be more than 500,000 civilians in the city alone. Excluding
Half of the women, and excluding half of the old, young, sick and disabled, there must be hundreds of thousands of strong men. If all of them were captured by Geng Qiang to participate in the defense of the city, it would be equivalent to more than doubling the defensive strength of Xibai City.
At this time, even Qiu Zhen, Zhang Zhe, Zong Yuan and other clever counselors looked sad, feeling that this battle would be difficult to end in a short time, or it would turn into a protracted tug-of-war and war of attrition.
Of course, this is the most unacceptable war for the current Tianyuan Army.
Tang Yin paced back and forth in front of the commander's case. After walking for a while, he stopped, looked around at the people in the tent, and said quietly: "No matter how strong the defense is, it will have weaknesses. Even if it is a solid piece of iron, it will have weak points.
Everyone, does anyone have a plan to break the city?"
After hearing this, everyone lowered their heads and no one said anything.
Seeing this, Tang Yin felt stuffy in his chest. When he said that he was attacking the city, everyone said the same thing. Now that the attack was frustrated, they all became mute. He took a deep breath and said: "Xibai City is strong. If our army cannot attack it for a long time,
The army will have to run out of food and will be defeated without a fight. Since no one has a good strategy to break the city, let's forget about withdrawing the army and go back to Jinguang County to farm first!"
"Sir, no!" Upon hearing this, everyone raised their heads and stopped them in unison.