Although Liang Jun discovered the secret of the new trebuchet tornado cannon and modified two tornado cannons as quickly as possible and put them into use, he was not able to capture the essence immediately.
Xichuan City got a rare respite for a few days. It not only recruited a large number of elite copycats from the west bank and brought them into the city to participate in the defense, but also urgently reinforced the precarious city wall.
After that, both sides set up cyclone cannons inside and outside the city wall to conduct bombardment. In a short period of time, the defenders still had a clear advantage.
Not only did the auxiliary soldiers and civilians used by Liang Jun in the front line suffer heavy casualties, but the modified new trebuchet tornado cannons were also smashed one after another because they were not protected by the city wall. They could only continue to build new tornado cannons and put them into the battlefield.
Confrontation.
Of course, the most important job of the defenders was to reinforce the city wall, or to seal the gap with Liang Jun when the city wall was smashed, and to force the civilians to brave Liang Jun's arrows and stones to fill the gap as quickly as possible.
.
Han Qian also built T-shaped low walls on the inside of the city wall to reinforce the fragile parts of the city wall.
Under Xichuan City, the offensive and defensive sides once again turned into a protracted war of attrition.
Liang Jun transferred a large number of bed crossbows from Fan Xiang, and Han Qian also made more scorpion crossbows and placed them on the city.
There was a lot of wood stored in the city. Han Qian and Yang En also built nest carts, floor carts, and hook-mounted guns and spears three to four feet long. When Liang Jun rushed to the city wall, more generals could assist the wall defenders in attacking from the inside.
Liang Jun.
When defending Liang Jun from the south, northeast and south, Han Qian also suggested that Guo Liang's troops, who were defending the west city, push more than ten cyclone cannons out of the west city and build a trebuchet position near the river dock to block the west side of the city.
The Xichuan River course of less than 300 steps forced the warships of Liang Jun's water camp to not dare to enter this area. This facilitated the recruitment of troops by the cottages on the west bank and allowed them to cross the Xichuan River directly and enter Xichuan City continuously.
At this time, Liang Jun had to withstand the attack from the walls of the southwest and northwest corners of the defenders, and along the river bank, he could enter the open space outside the west city, attack the defenders' trebuchet positions outside the city, and regain their water camp's control of Xichuan.
Blockade of the river.
Until the end of March, Liang Jun, who had been working hard to blockade the Xichuan River, suddenly retreated south with dozens of broken ships.
Although the scouts had risked their lives to break through Liang Jun's blockade the day before yesterday, and the navy of the Jianglou Fleet Army had bravely cut off Liang Jun's iron cable pontoon bridge between Xiangzhou City and Fancheng before entering the upper reaches of the Han River, seeing this scene, Han Qian
The nerves that had been tense for three months finally relaxed.
Soon Liang Jun retreated from the outpost outside Xichuan City towards Neixiang City. The top of the city, which was infected with flesh and blood, burst into earth-shattering cheers and roars. However, Han Qian saw corpses scattered under the city.
Time actually felt like it was lost.
Shen Yang and others were so excited that they burst into tears. They could not imagine that if such a brutal war of attrition continued for another three or four days, they would still have some chance of defending Xichuan City. They staggered to the Zhenjiang Mansion to give the Third Prince
Report the good news that reinforcements are coming and Liang Jun has withdrawn from the siege.
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Li Pu, the Marquis of Xinchang, led more than 5,000 generals of the Second Capital of the Longque Army. Along with the Louchuan General, the elite Louchuan Army navy led by Zhenyuan Marquis Yang Jian successively cut off Liang Jun's chain pontoon bridge in Yingzhou and blocked Fancheng.
It was attacked by Liang Jun's fire boat array for the first time and suffered heavy casualties.
Of the more than sixty large warships that set out, less than half were left when they arrived at the mouth of the Xichuan River.
The elites of the Second Capital of the Longque Army and the navy of the Louchuan Army were either drowned along the way or were burned to death by fire. There were 20,000 soldiers and horses at the time of departure, but now there were less than 15,000 left.
If they managed to fight their way to the upper reaches of the Danjiang River, but Jingzikou and Xichuan had already fallen, Xinchang Marquis Li Pu could hardly imagine how many of them would survive when they fought their way back to the lower reaches of the Han River to join the main force of Jinling reinforcements.
Seeing from a distance that the flag of General Longque, representing the third prince Yang Yuanpu, was still hanging high above the general's mansion in Can Town, Xinchang Hou Li Pu also breathed a complete sigh of relief.
Feng Yi and Kong Xirong, who made a passionate charge in Ezhou and took the initiative to follow the Louchuan Navy to march north to reinforce Xichuan, had seen the dangers along the way and almost regretted it.
When the war ship docked at the dock, they saw Han Qian wearing a green robe standing behind the third prince who looked a little pale but high-spirited. They were so excited that tears filled their eyes and they danced.
"You actually held on! When we set out from Jiangxia, we kept our heads on our belts, thinking that if we didn't come over, we would be unjust. If we came over, you couldn't hold Xichuan City.
We are about to explain this place! You actually defended Xichuan City!"
Shen Yang, Shen He, Yang En, Chen De, Chai Jian and others accompanied the third prince Yang Yuanpu to greet Zhenyuan Hou Yang Jian, Xinchang Hou Li Pu, Han Qian fell behind and did not want to join in the fun - Feng Yi and Kong Xirong were junior,
He was not qualified to get to the front, so when he came to Han Qian's side, Feng Yi's mouth was so excited that he kept talking non-stop.
Han Qian just smiled slightly.
The third prince, who accompanied Marquis Zhenyuan, Marquis Xinchang and others into the city, called him over at this time: "This is Han Qian. Han Qian should be the first to hold Xichuan this time!"
Han Qian stepped forward, bowed his hands to the Marquis of Zhenyuan Yang Jian and the Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu, and said calmly: "Han Qian has met the Marquis of Zhenyuan and the Marquis of Xinchang. Don't take what the two marquises said seriously. Han Qian is also a few."
It's just good luck that some bad ideas happened to work..."
"Why can't you take my words seriously?" Yang Yuanpu asked with a smile.
Han Qian said: "In terms of merits, His Highness, with his body of ten thousand gold, was not afraid of the enemy's danger, defended the mountains and rivers, and sat in Xichuan to boost morale, which should be the first meritorious service; the second ones are General Li, General Zheng, and General Guo.
Generals Zhou Sima and Chaidu led the generals to serve their lives. Secondly, Master Shen, Yang Hou, and Shaojian Shen made suggestions for His Highness and stabilized the morale of the army, which was also an indispensable contribution. When considered one by one, Han Qian's contribution is really lacking.
It's just the icing on the cake if it's not a big deal..."
Yang Jian, Marquis of Zhenyuan, was also a member of the clan, and his relationship with Emperor Tianyou was closer than that of Yang En. He was also Emperor Tianyou's most trusted general of the clan, and had always been the naval commander of Da Chu.
However, like the great ministers in the court, Yang Jian had no intention of getting involved in the fight for heir apparent.
Even when the third prince got married, Yang Jian only sent family members to send congratulatory gifts. Neither he nor his son showed up. Han Qian had never had the opportunity to meet Yang Jian before.
At this time, Yang Jian was accompanying the third prince through the West City Gate. The West City Gate was almost attacked and was naturally intact. The trebuchet position outside the West City was fiercely occupied, leaving behind pools of blood. However, Yang Jian, who had experienced many wars,
In the eyes, it is really ordinary.
When Yang Jian, Li Pu and the others walked through the West City Gate and looked around, they were truly shocked by the brutality of Xichuan's offensive and defensive battles in the past two months.
Large areas of the incomplete and collapsed city walls were stained purple with blood.
There are traces of old and new on the city wall, and I don’t know how many gaps have been opened and then filled again.
You can even see countless stumps and broken arms embedded in the city wall. This is obviously a rush to repair the city wall during the fierce battle between the two sides. Many corpses were not even cleaned out from the sand, stone and wood, but were directly buried in the city wall.
Before arriving at Xichuan City, Yang Jian felt that the letters sent by the Third Prince, Shen Yang and others were full of exaggerations. He did not believe that the Longque Army could sustain such a fierce offensive and defensive battle, and that it could be several times stronger. Liang Jun's elite guarded such a dilapidated city like Xichuan.
At this moment, he stood under the west city gate, but he was stunned for a long time before he came back to his senses. Then he looked at Han Qian seriously and said:
"When the Prime Minister left Jinling, I had a drink with him and listened to the Prime Minister comment on the people in the government and the public. He said that your father had great talents in governing the place. But the Prime Minister obviously did not see you at that time!"
Han Qian heard Yang Jian's tone was a little dull and thought that he might not really appreciate him. When he saw his expression, it was more of a relief after being lucky.
Han Qian acted as if he couldn't tell and returned the favor: "Yang Hou is so complimentary!"
Yang Jian let out a slight breath at this time, cheered up, and continued to accompany the third prince, Li Pu and others to the remaining city.
No matter how many deviant moves Han Qian and the Third Prince had before, or how lucky their victory was, Yang Jian had to admit that the Longque Army successfully defended Xichuan City, which was the most critical turning point in reversing the situation in Jingxiang.
The Lou Chuanjun navy also took the risk to break through Liang Jun's blockade and successfully joined forces with the Xichuan defenders. At this time, Liang Jun would have to retreat in despair unless he could forcibly capture Xiangzhou City in a very short period of time. Can go.
In the past few years, Da Chu has been focusing on the management of Xiangzhou City in the west wing, and Du Chongtao has led more than 20,000 elite troops to garrison it. Yang Jian believed that no matter how incompetent Du Chongtao was, he would be able to defend Xiangzhou City longer than the third prince guarding Xichuan City.
If under such a situation, Liang Jun dares to stay in the Jingxiang area for another two or three months, Yang Jian is confident that His Majesty will be able to eat up the main force of Liang Jun's march south this time!
"Where is Mr. Zhang Ping?" When Xinchang Hou Lipu was walking towards the Zhenjiang's Mansion, his mind calmed down. Suddenly he realized that he had not seen the figure of Zhang Ping, the eunuch of the Hou Mansion, and asked doubtfully.
When the others were gone, Li Pu could bear to not ask. After all, in such a tragic war, accidents could happen to anyone. However, as Zhang Ping is the eunuch of the Hou Mansion, he usually only needs to stay by the side of the third prince, and there should be no need to go to the front line to charge into the battle. .
Zhang Ping was not seen at this time, and Xinchang Hou Li Pu was quite confused.
"During the war, His Highness ignored the danger and braved the enemy's arrows and stones to visit the army in the city to boost morale. In order to save His Highness, Mr. Zhang Ping's left shoulder was shattered by a falling rock. He has not yet woken up." Chai Jian stood aside. said.
Li Pu followed Zhenyuan Marquis Yang Jian ashore and saw that the third prince was not as cold to him as expected. He thought that the third prince had arrived in time for the reinforcements and was grateful. Unexpectedly, it was Zhang Ping who risked his life to rescue him at the top of the city and resolved the issue. The third prince had some estrangements towards them.
At this time, Li Pu's expression became much softer, and he reached out to caress Li Zhigao's shoulder, as if he had no grudge against Li Zhigao's actions that day.
Han Qian's expression dimmed slightly, and he fell half a step behind, slightly distancing himself from the cheerful crowd.
