After Ruan Zhengyu finished speaking, he took out a command arrow from his arms and handed it to Du Peng, "Take my command arrow and go to the south to organize an army. This time, no matter what, you must gather another 500,000 troops for me."
Du Peng took the order arrow and replied decisively: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will definitely live up to Your Majesty's orders when I go to the south this time."
Ruan Zhengyu nodded, and then continued to warn: "This time when you go to the south, you don't have to wait to gather all the troops to go north, but gather 10,000 or 20,000 people and send them to Longcheng Pass as soon as possible."
Du Peng understood as soon as he heard this. Ruan Zhengyu had no confidence in the defense of Longcheng Pass. After thinking about it, Longcheng Pass only had a few thousand old and weak soldiers, plus more than 10,000 untrained farmers, but he had to resist several people.
One hundred thousand elites from the Central Plains, just thinking about it makes one's scalp numb.
Du Peng quickly patted his chest and assured Ruan Zhengyu that within five days after his departure, he would gather 10,000 troops and send them to Longcheng Pass to resist the invasion of the Central Plains.
Ruan Zhengyu then asked Du Peng to leave overnight and not to waste time.
Du Peng has actually been looking forward to leaving this ghost place for a long time. Who knows whether the Central Plains soldiers from outside and inside will attack the city overnight, or is it safer to leave this place?
So Du Peng made an awe-inspiring gesture and said to Ruan Zhengyu: "Since the military situation is urgent, I will not delay any longer. I will set off now and mobilize the soldiers as early as possible to make Longcheng Pass safe."
Ruan Zhengyu didn't know that his general wanted to leave quickly. He thought he was loyal to the court, so he was pleased to let him leave immediately.
Du Peng did not delay after receiving the order. He immediately left the lobby, led his horse, and left directly from the south gate of Longcheng Pass with his personal guards.
That night, Ruan Zhengyu did not dare to neglect. On the one hand, he recruited civilians and on the other hand, he ordered the top of the city to be more vigilant. He was afraid of being suddenly attacked at night and causing Longcheng Pass to be breached.
On this night, Jia Ke's troops outside the city did not attack Longcheng Pass. Jia Ke just prevented the opponent from attacking him and sent the Eight Banners cavalry to roam under the city.
Although Jia Ke did not attack the city, the Eight Banners cavalry kept wandering under Longcheng Pass all night, which made the officers and soldiers on the city so nervous that they did not sleep all night. When the next morning, everyone was listless.
.
As for Jia Ke, he immediately beat the drums in the morning to gather the generals. After all the civil and military personnel arrived at the Chinese army's tent, Jia Ke, accompanied by Li Deshan, entered the tent and sat in the middle.
"Everyone, Longcheng Pass is a dangerous place in the world, but once Longcheng Temple is captured, there will be a vast plain to the south. And now according to my scouts, there are not many soldiers and horses at Longcheng Pass. It is I who are waiting for you.
It’s a good time to attack, otherwise when Annan transfers troops from the south, it will be difficult for us to capture Longcheng Pass."
After Jia Ke said this, he looked at Sun Yan who was standing below, "Master Sun, what do you think of this battle?"
When Sun Yan heard Jia Ke's inquiry, he stood up, lowered his head and thought for a moment, and then said: "My lord, generals, I don't have much food and grass waiting for me. If we can't capture Longcheng Pass right away, then
We have to stay for a while again and wait for the food and grass to be shipped from the country. By then, even if we win, we will consume a lot of strength, so I agree with the lord's idea that we should fight quickly regardless of the cost."
Jia Ke nodded after listening, "Master Sun's intention coincides with mine. If so, I will give the order."
"Where is the Manchu Eight Banners Commander?"
As soon as Jia Ke finished speaking, eight burly men emerged from among the generals.
"The slave is waiting."
"I order you to divide into four equal waves, and within one hour, attack Longcheng Pass respectively. You must not let the enemy soldiers above the pass have a chance to breathe."
After hearing this, these eight people looked at each other a little bit. They all brought cavalry this time. If they were to attack the city, wouldn't it be a waste of money?
Jia Ke looked at these eight people in a daze and knew that they did not understand what he meant.
"Eight idiots, I didn't ask you to send cavalry to attack the city. You have captured so many enemy troops. How could I keep them in vain? Now is the time for them to contribute."
As soon as these eight people listened to Jia Ke's words, they understood what it meant. This was to let the prisoners attack the city to reduce the casualties of their troops. They used to use this trick when they were Tatars, but since they followed
Jia Ke has seldom done these things, and he didn't expect that now they can return to their old profession.
Now that they understood what Jia Ke meant, these people naturally agreed.
Jia Ke then ordered: "Wu Lu, the commander-in-chief of Guangxi, and Liu Zhi, the commander-in-chief of Yunnan, each of you will lead 30,000 wolf soldiers and ambush behind the Eight Banners cavalry and wait for my order."
After listening to Jia Ke's order, the two generals immediately bowed their hands and said yes, and then went out of the tent to rectify the troops.
Then Jia Ke took the rest of the generals and many siege equipment to personally supervise the army's siege.
Ruan Zhengyu had been busy with Qingzhuang's affairs last night until almost dawn. He had just slept for a while when suddenly his soldiers broke into the room and shook him awake.
"Your Majesty, please wake up. The enemy has begun to attack the city."
Ruan Zhengyu had not slept very well, so when he heard this, he woke up with excitement.
"what happened?"
When the soldier saw that Ruan Zhengyu had woken up, he quickly reported: "Just now, the enemy's camp came out in full force. There seemed to be hundreds of thousands of them. Prime Minister Li Guangqing ordered me to come and inform the king, so that the king can quickly go to the tower to command the battle.
"
After hearing this, Ruan Zhengyu didn't care about anything else and immediately ordered his soldiers to straighten his armor.
After Ruan Zhengyu finished dressing, he immediately took his horse to the top of the city.
At this time, Li Guangqing was standing on the city tower, commanding the young men and the old and weak remnant soldiers at Longcheng Gate to carry rolling wood and thunder stones, always on guard against the opponent's success.
But Ding Hao's remnants, those thousands of troops, were Ruan Zhengyu's last hope. Ruan Zhengyu had already given an order, and no one was allowed to mobilize this army without his king's order.
When Li Guangqing saw Ruan Zhengyu coming, he took three steps and then two. He saluted him first, and then said: "Your Majesty, the enemy is about to attack the city, and the vanguard is probably our previously captured soldiers.
.”
Ruan Zhengyu was a little in disbelief after hearing this. Finally he came to the city chopper and looked down.
Sure enough, as Li Guangqing said, the soldiers wearing their military uniforms below had been driven by the enemy's cavalry and stood in formation.
I saw these people holding crude weapons in their hands, and some carrying ladders waiting to charge.
Ruan Zhengyu was furious when he saw this. He had already seen that if the soldiers under the city dispersed in a hurry, although the opponent's cavalry was powerful, they would not be able to kill all of them. It seemed that his soldiers were already timid.
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As the commander of the Zhenghuang Banner, Jirigela is now commanding the first wave of attacks, and beside him is the commander of the Xianghuang Banner, Mandu Latu, the deputy of this attack.
Mandu Latu is also considered a brave and resourceful person among the Eight Banners. He looked at the city. Many rolling wooden rocks and thunder stones had been prepared on the city tower. If they did not provide cover, the prisoners below would have suffered heavy losses.
.
So Mandu Ratu urged his horse to come to Jirigela's side and said: "Jirigla, I'll see if we can send some cavalry to shoot arrows below to cover these prisoners."
Jirigela also saw clearly what was going on in the city. He nodded: "Then we will each send 5,000 cavalry, divided into two teams and walk under the city tower to give these prisoners some support to prevent them from all dying. Let's go back
I can’t explain the grassland to my family.”
After the two men made up their mind, they each divided 5,000 men and horses, walked down the tower from the left and right, and kept firing arrows at the tower.
The people on the city wall were originally old, weak and remnant soldiers, as well as the young and strong men who had just gathered last night. Their fighting will was very weak. Now seeing arrows constantly shooting upward from the city tower, they were frightened one by one and lay on the wall.
Don't dare to show your head.
Jizhigla saw that the enemy soldiers on the tower had been suppressed, and hurriedly ordered his cavalry to start driving the prisoners to attack the city.
Speaking of these Annan prisoners, they were as honest as Sun Tzu to the Central Plains soldiers, but they were very cruel to their own people.
Many of them have worked hard to express themselves since the surrender, and thus have been reused by the Eight Banners.
Now these people are the supervisors. They are shouting with swords and guns. Finally, they are driving the captive soldiers forward. But if anyone dares to stop, their supervisors will immediately come forward and beat and kick them.
, this is still good, if there is any resistance, the steel knife next to him will strike.
So these captive soldiers could only carry crude weapons and ladders to the bottom of the city. Because they knew that if they retreated, they would definitely die, and if they moved forward, they would still have a chance of survival, so they attacked fiercely upwards.
Ruan Zhengyu on the city wall saw this situation and hurriedly ordered his soldiers to urge Qing Zhuang and the soldiers on the city wall to start throwing rolling wood and thunder stones downwards.
Then a fierce siege began.
Since the preparations for Longcheng Pass were not sufficient, there were not many rolling logs and thunder stones on the top of the city. At the beginning, it caused huge damage to the Annan prisoners who attacked the city.
But as time went by, there were fewer and fewer rolling wood and thunder stones, and the soldiers and young men on the city had to pick up weapons and go up to fight the Annan prisoners who were attacking the city.
But these people on the city tower were either old, weak or remnant soldiers, or they were farmers who had just been recruited. They were no match for the trained Annan prisoners downstairs.
As a result, it didn't take long for Leilei to be killed and injured from the top of the building. Ruan Zhengyu saw that this was not the solution, so he had no choice but to send the soldiers that Ding Hao brought back this time to the tower.
There are about five or six thousand of these soldiers. Originally, Ruan Zhengyu would use them as a reserve team at the last moment. But looking at the scene on the tower now, if the reserve team is not put in now, I am afraid that you will not be able to pass the Longcheng Pass for two hours.
It can't be saved.
With this new force joining the tower, things were finally stabilized.
But this army is too few, and their addition to the city wall is just delaying time.
An hour later, Jizhigla blew the horn and ordered his troops to withdraw.
Next, Dutong Jiya of the Zhengbai Banner and Dutong Menggen of the Xiangbai Banner began to take over their siege.