Li Zhigao, Guo Liang, Zheng Hui, and Zhou Feng were each responsible for the defense of one city wall. Among them, the east city guarded by Li Zhigao had the heaviest defense task. Zheng Hui and Zhou Fang guarded the north and south cities respectively, which was also the easy point for Liang Jun to attack the city. The burden is not light either.
Guo Liang guarded Xicheng, which was adjacent to the Xichuan River. The space left from the river bank to the base of the city wall was narrow, and the guarding task was the lightest. Together with the Xuzhou Battalion and the guard battalion led by the third prince, he assumed the responsibility of the general reserve force.
Han Qian took Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Xi Chang to the east city and saw Shen He and Yang En, who had also been invited by the third prince, looking at the enemy camp in the east under the moonlight.
Although it was a clear night with a bright moon and few stars, the enemy camp ten miles away was so dark that even with a telescope, no movement could be seen.
It was confirmed that a newly arrived army of troops had entered the Liangjun camp to the east. It was the scouts who had sneaked out of the city and had just returned to report. At this time, they could only vaguely see hundreds of steps of torches like dragons and snakes walking slowly to the east of the enemy camp. can prove this.
"How many soldiers and horses of the Liang army are stationed in this camp to the east?" Shen He asked, pointing to the dark continuous enemy camps outside the city.
"There are currently less than 30,000 Liang Jun elites stationed in the enemy camp to the east. In addition, Liang Jun has also built a camp in the upper reaches of the Xichuan River, with about five to six thousand soldiers and horses. There are also five in Neixiang City to the east. More than a thousand garrison troops. If the Liang Army entering tonight is transferred from the area east of Neixiang, then the Liang Army's garrison outside Xichuan City should have exceeded 45,000 people; Liang Army also has troops from Suizhou , more than 20,000 able-bodied civilians captured from Yingzhou,"
Shen Yang patiently introduced to Shen He the dangerous situation Xichuan was currently facing, and said,
"Although we repelled several waves of Liang Jun's offensives before, Liang Jun's focus in the early stage was not in Xichuan, but in Fancheng, including a large number of craftsmen who could make siege equipment. They were also mainly concentrated in Fancheng in the early stage. Only then will we meet the real The test!”
When Shen He and Yang En entered the city from the west, they did not see Liang Jun's deployment in the east and north. He saw the defenders reorganizing their appearance in the city, and saw that most of the walls of Xichuan City and the houses in the city were intact. I thought the situation was more optimistic than expected, but I didn't expect that the main goal of the Liang Army's main force in the Nanyang Basin in the early stage was to capture Fancheng and open a channel from the north to the south to attack Xiangzhou City.
Liang Jun's previous military operations against Xichuan were mainly sieges and restrictions on the defenders' access. Large-scale siege warfare had not yet begun.
Thinking that the number of soldiers and horses gathered by Liang Jun on the outskirts of Xichuan City at this time was already five or six times that of the defenders, and that there was the possibility of further gathering of troops in the future, Shen He's cheerful expression of relief after entering the city suddenly became serious again. .
"Liang Jun was building siege equipment, but even Fan City couldn't withstand Liang Jun's forty or fifty trebuchets for more than ten days, and a large part of the city wall collapsed. The Xichuan city wall is not as thick as Fan City. I think the Xichuan side We still need to use a strategy to severely weaken Liang Jun's spirit. Otherwise, Xichuan will never be able to defend against the arrival of Jinling reinforcements!" Han Qian said with a slight frown.
When Zheng Hui entered Xichuan City, it was even more dilapidated than Fan City. Large areas of the previous city walls had collapsed, and there were gaps everywhere.
Zheng Hui kidnapped seven to eight hundred old and weak men from all around to repair the city. It was impossible to completely dismantle the remaining walls and rebuild them. He could only repair the gaps.
Han Qian and others surrounded the third prince and stationed in Xichuan City. There were 12,000 to 3,000 soldiers and civilians. However, in such a short time, they could only reinforce the remaining walls based on the previous ones.
In fact, the structure of the city wall of Xichuan City is still quite fragile.
According to Zuo Si's observation of the Fancheng battlefield, the tractor-type trebuchet built by Liang Jun was placed three to four hundred steps away from the front of the formation. With more than a hundred people working together, it could directly blast stone bullets weighing two to three hundred kilograms. Hit the city wall.
If Liang Jun had built thirty or forty of these heavy trebuchets, Xichuan's strongest east wall probably wouldn't have been able to hold up for ten days and would have collapsed in large parts.
After the city wall collapsed, how long could the Chu army, which had no wall to defend them, hold out in the face of the Liang army's elite troops who were charging in like wolves and tigers, five or six times their size?
"Han Qian, I know you are always very resourceful. Is there any way to weaken the enemy?" Shen He stared at Han Qian and asked as if he was grabbing a straw when he was drowning.
Han Qian had met Shen He a few times before, but it was just a meeting. There was really no deep contact. Seeing Shen He acting like he knew everything about him, Han Qian thought that Emperor Tianyou must have some extra eyes. Watching his and Zuo Si's every move.
But this was not the time to think deeply about this issue. Facing Shen He's question, Han Qian just nodded slightly. Even if he had any plans, he would not be able to openly discuss them on the city wall.
"The enemy general Han Yuanqi is the nephew of Han Jian, the military governor of Xuzhou. He is highly valued by Emperor Liang. He uses his troops steadily, and I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to have any flaws exposed and be caught." Shen Yang said worriedly.
There are endless records of clever strategies to defeat the enemy, but the vast majority of successful cases are based on the enemy general's arrogance and underestimation of the enemy or the enemy itself has great hidden dangers and flaws.
In addition to the initial attack on Canglang City and the setback at Tieguling, after Liang Jun's strategic intentions for the Jingxiang area were completely exposed, Han Yuanqi, who personally went to the inner township to take charge, has been extremely steady in his offensive on the western front for more than a month. It was a tentative attack on Xichuan City several times.
Seeing that the defenders were determined to fight, Han Yuanqi suspended the offensive and drove the civilians on the gentle slope less than ten miles east of Xichuan City, as well as on the gorge at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain in the upper reaches of the Xichuan River and at the mouth of the Xichuan River where it merged into the Danjiang River. Build a camp, or use the abandoned fortress to build a fort. First, stabilize your own base and confine the Longque Army to Xichuan City to the greatest extent, making it difficult to move on a large scale.
Now that Liang Jun captured Fancheng, Han Yuanqi transferred a large number of craftsmen from Fancheng to build siege weapons.
In addition, Liang Jun tried his best to collect ships along the Han River, including Liang's Guanzhong troops in Wuguan, and also focused on quickly building a batch of warships so that they could have larger water camps on the Han River and Danjiang River. Combat strength.
Before Jinling's most elite naval force marched westward, the Xuzhou Ship Gang only had 300 sailors and six warships, which was still too weak. When Liang Jun's water camp moved westward, they would be forced to withdraw from the Xichuan River and needed to hide. to the branch streams in the upper reaches of the Danjiang River.
By then, Xichuan City will be facing enemies on all sides, and the retreat into the mountains on the west bank will also be cut off.
According to scouts currently conducting reconnaissance on the enemy's movements in the Xiangzhou City area, Liang Jun will most likely besiege Xiangzhou City first, and then shift the focus of the next war to a storming of Xichuan City.
In the end, the strategy must be based on considerable strength. Liang Jun has an absolute advantage and is still moving step by step. How can they use clever strategies to win?
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At the end of February, the water camp formed by Liang Jun on the basis of surrendering troops sent 3,000 soldiers into the Danjiang River on more than 100 large and small warships. Yang Qin and Feng Xuan led the Xuzhou Boat Gang and were forced to withdraw from the Xichuan River, marking the Longque The main force of the army was completely besieged in Xichuan City.
On March 6, the Wubao camp built by Liang Jun on the outskirts of Xichuan City opened all the gates on the side facing Xichuan City. After removing obstacles such as antlers and horses, groups of Liang Jun in neat clothes and armor came out.
A group of simple and practical sidecars and cave-house cars, which could block arrows in the city, were advancing toward Xichuan City.
This also shows that the stalemate between the Liang and Chu armies in Xichuan lasted until this moment and was completely broken.
In Liang Jun's formation, hundreds of able-bodied civilians pushed more than a dozen chariots forward slowly.
The nest cart built by Liang Jun erected two long pillars seven or eight feet high on a movable frame, and then used ropes to hang a wooden house several feet square to the top of the pillars.
The wooden house looks like a nest, with holes on all sides. Three or four generals can stand inside. The generals in the nest can look over the city wall and see what's going on in Xichuan City. At the same time, they can also use their bows and crossbows to shoot at the top of the city.
's defenders.
After all, the walls surrounding Xichuan City are only more than two feet high, and even if the walls are built with palisade wood to cover the stone sheds, they are still no more than three feet high.
In addition to the relatively simple nest car, Liang Jun also built a more sturdy and huge building car.
The Louche is slightly shorter than the Chaoche, but it is still nearly ten feet taller than the city wall of Xichuan City.
Pushed by hundreds of people, the carriages look like mobile arrow towers covered with rawhide.
On the top of each cart, nearly ten archers can stand at the same time to shoot arrows from a high position. There is also a ladder that can be lowered on the top. When approaching the city wall during a siege, the ladder with hooks can be put directly on the top of the wall.
Liang Jun's sword and shield soldiers in the building's car were able to swarm out and seize a foothold on the city wall.
In view of the chariots and nest chariots that can approach the city wall, the defenders also prepared a large number of hooks on their heads, long poles for stabbing spears, and more than twenty crossbows hidden in the barracks, waiting for the enemy chariots.
When the nest chariot is approaching, you can fire a volley of thorns at it.
Of course, the biggest headache was the trebuchets that were slowly advancing behind the enemy lines.
Liang Jun had no intention of immediately forcing the city to engage in close combat. He first pushed dozens of cave houses and sidecars outside the east city gate.
It was obvious that Liang Jun wanted to use these cave cars and side cars to prevent the defenders from leaving the city to counterattack.
Han Qian accompanied the third prince, Shen Yang, and Shen He to watch the battle in Dongcheng, but Li Zhigao was still in charge of the actual battle.
Li Zhigao sent his warrior general Deng Tai to charge out with his troops and horses holding shields, hoping to destroy the dozens of cave houses and sidecars to prevent them from blocking the defenders' passage out of the city to counterattack.
Seeing the defenders coming out and being out of the range of the crossbows at the top of the city, Liang Jun from the brigade also formed a formation and fought out from behind the cave carriages and side carriages. At the same time, he pushed several floor carriages forward.
An archer is shooting from a high position.
Deng Tai only had time to direct his men to throw out dozens of kerosene cans filled with tung oil, and then he hurriedly retreated. Although he advanced and retreated very quickly, when he retreated into the city, he was still shot to death and wounded more than a dozen people.
Han Qian looked at the pyrotechnics thrown by Han Qian. In addition to burning more than a dozen cave cars and side cars, it also burned and burned dozens of Liang Jun soldiers and civilian husbands. However, Liang Jun didn't care about these casualties and fired more from the rear.
Many cave-house cars and sidecars were pushed forward, forming a formation of two to three hundred paces long.
The chariot formation is almost 400 steps away from the city wall. Even if a crossbow with a force of five or six stones can shoot 400 paces away, it will be difficult to hurt the Liang Jun generals behind the chariot formation because it is blocked by the tall cave chariots.
.
Liang Jun not only shoveled earth to cover the vehicle formation to prevent fire, but also piled more antlers and horses on both sides of the vehicle formation to form a barrier to prevent the defenders from directly attacking Liang Jun's main formation.
After that, Liang Jun drove hundreds of civilians forward, dug trenches against the car array, built barrier walls, and piled up an earthen wall with the soil from the trenches and tamped it down.
Han Qian could tell that Liang Jun wanted to block them in the city first, and then use trebuchets to continuously bombard the city wall. After a large gap appeared, he organized troops and horses to launch a strong attack.
This was also the tactic carried out by Liang Jun in Fancheng.
However, during the bombardment that lasted for more than ten days, the defenders of Fancheng suffered heavy casualties. Du Chongtao withdrew the defenders from Fancheng in advance before Liang Jun could organize troops to attack.
At this time, the Xichuan River to the west of Xichuan City was occupied by nearly a hundred large and small warships from Liang Jun's water camp. The channel for the defenders to withdraw west across the Xichuan River had been blocked. It was impossible to withdraw. The other three sides were controlled by Liang Jun.
Deep in the hinterland, there is nowhere to break out.
At this moment, Han Qian couldn't help but wonder, had he gambled too much?
