Chinese New Year

Chapter 522: Difficult Decision
Shi Le made a circle and returned to the city from the north gate. He counted the number of soldiers and found only a few thousand infantry and cavalry.

He didn't waste time and galloped on his horse down the street. When he reached the south city wall, he dismounted and headed straight for the top of the city wall.

He was in a state of panic, his wounds ached, his legs and feet felt sore, his temples were throbbing, and he was breathing heavily. The soldiers guarding the city were stunned when they saw him, and they all moved away.

"How is it?" Shi Le went up to the city and found Wang Yang immediately and asked.

Wang Yang looked solemn and said nothing more. He just pointed outside the city and said, "Your Majesty will know it at a glance."

When Shi Le looked around, he saw the vast land covered with dense corpses of men and horses.

Countless prisoners lined up in a long queue and walked southward dejectedly.

He roughly counted them and found that there were no less than five thousand people.

Thirty thousand infantrymen went out of the city to fight, and it is not known how many were killed. The five thousand captives in front of us are solid and miserable.

Shao Xun actually didn’t have any fancy formations.

He stood on the platform and did not give any outstanding command. He just gave an order when the time came, and the army executed it and won. That was all.

It can be said that if any general with some experience were to take his position, he would command in the same way and win the victory.

Twelve thousand heavy infantry, arranged in four small squares in front, back, left and right, formed a large formation, first resisting the cavalry charge, then advancing layer by layer, infantry fighting, destroying 30,000 infantry in one fell swoop, driving them into the moat like sheep, driving them over the sheep and horse wall, and driving them to the city gate...

But he also understood that it was just his unwillingness to accept the result.

In a real battlefield, why would there be so much going back and forth?
More than 90% of the battles outside the camp were fought in the field, and the outcome was decided within half an hour, thus ending the battle.

Besides, it was already a credit to him that their army, with such low morale, did not collapse at the first blow.

For Shao Xun, this was an extremely easy battle, far less intense than the Battle of Zhamati.

The key now is -

"How many people have returned?" Shi Le pulled Wang Yang and asked in a low voice.

There are 40,000 troops. Even if they are densely packed together, they can only form seven or eight square formations. He doesn't believe that those who run away first will not be able to come back.

"There were only more than 10,000 people who retreated from the southern gates of the city. The cavalry went back first, about 3,000 cavalry, and the rest were mostly infantry." Wang Yang said: "Later, I ordered arrows to be fired to close the city gates. The enemy army was chasing too fast, so I dared not let anyone in."

Speaking of this, Wang Yang felt a little ashamed.

"You did the right thing." Shi Le said, "If we hadn't acted decisively, the enemy army might have driven the defeated soldiers in."

Then he sighed.

There was a large cloud of smoke and dust in the north of the city. Those were the cavalry that followed him into battle. When they were defeated, they just left without saying goodbye.

He calculated the troops at hand, and brought back 2,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry, while more than 10,000 men retreated from the south of the city.

There were still 5,000 cavalrymen and 5,000 to 6,000 infantrymen in the city who had not yet gone into battle - these were the soldiers of Tao Bao, the governor of Wei County. Their combat effectiveness was not good, so they were not allowed to go into battle at all this time.

There are still thousands of cavalrymen active in the wild in the areas south and east of Anyang, and they will not be of any use for the time being.

What we can really use now are actually only 17,000 to 18,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, and their morale is low and their equipment is incomplete, so it is very difficult.

Of course, theoretically there were more than this number of soldiers, because he had previously ordered the conscription of a group of men from Yecheng and given them weapons, which was also a force. But whether they could fight or not, only God knew.

"Your Majesty..." Wang Yang glanced at him cautiously, seeming to be hesitant to speak.

"Speak." Shi Le waved his hand, his eyes still fixed outside the city.

The five thousand captives were driven eastward by the Jin army and seemed to have begun to build a camp.

Wang Yang saw that Shi Le had noticed the Jin army's movements, so he summoned up his courage and asked, "Your Majesty, do you still plan to defend Yecheng?"

Shi Le did not answer, but just looked at Wang Yang and said, "Go on."

"I see Shao Xun is planning to besiege Yecheng." Wang Yang pointed outside and said, "His troops were originally stationed north of Caoqiao and south of Yecheng, but now they have been divided into two groups to the east of the city and have begun to build camps. It seems that people have also been sent to the north of the city. If we let him dig trenches and build city walls, what do you think we should do?"

From the moment Shao Xun's army arrived in Yecheng, the initiative was completely in his hands.

He could have dug trenches and three layers of trenches around Yecheng and irrigated them with water.

The soil dug out from the trenches was compacted on the spot to form a wall, and then camp was set up outside the triple trench, a high platform was built, and bows and crossbows were deployed. How would they break out when the time came?

This is also the reason why Shi Le was unwilling to defend Yecheng to the death.

There was only three months of food and grass, and after this, the army was starving three months later. Did they eat people?
Well, even if they can eat people, their morale will definitely be even lower. If someone suddenly attacks them, large-scale defection is inevitable.

It may not even take three months before someone surrenders.

We went out of the city to fight today, but came back with a crushing defeat. The situation hasn't improved at all, it's even gotten worse. This time we've lost the fight.

Shao Xun's intention should not have changed, and he began to put it into practice: digging trenches, building walls, and besieging Yecheng.

During the siege, there would certainly be attacks. On the one hand, it was to tie down the defenders so that they could dig trenches outside the city smoothly. On the other hand, it was to take advantage of the low morale of the defenders to see if there was any advantage to be gained.

This is not——

"Boom, boom, boom..." The drums sounded, and the auxiliary troops of the Jin army who had not gone into battle before had lined up in neat rows and slowly approached. They were going to attack the city!

"Your Majesty, Shao Xun's troops are approaching Ye. The nearby forts and manors must surrender and provide food and men. It won't take long to dig trenches and build walls. If you hesitate any longer, once Shao Xun surrounds Ye, you won't be able to leave." Seeing that Shi Le didn't speak, Wang Yang was a little anxious. Shi Le opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

To put it bluntly, Yecheng is just a city built of earth, stone and wood. It is too large and requires too many troops to defend. There is no dangerous terrain around it, so it is easy to attack but difficult to defend.

From a military perspective, it is of little value.

But politically, it means too much.

The most famous city in Hebei, a transportation hub, and the capital of Cao Wei...

All these things added up to make Yecheng extremely important.

He's been here for several years.

He encouraged people to engage in farming and sericulture, distributed land and houses, won over the wealthy and powerful, and trained soldiers. His second son was also born here.

Many of his officers and soldiers married into wealthy families in Yecheng.

He even planned to open a school here, and let every general and officer select their sons and nephews to send them to study.

With so many plans and so many ties, how can you just leave?

Once he left, all his years of hard work would be destroyed and his prestige would be gone in an instant.

Once he left, he would become a rootless duckweed, and the tribes that depended on him might not necessarily trust him anymore - couldn't Shao Xun lure out the tribal leaders and chiefs?
Shi Le didn't dare to look down on him like that.

He always felt that Shao Xun was very capable and might be able to get along well with the leaders of the various Hu tribes and make them work for him.

Once Yecheng was lost, he didn't know how many people would still be willing to follow him.

The eighteen riders should be no problem, but what about the soldiers and generals under them?

Even if there are a large number of people following, won’t Shao Xun give chase?
August is the golden autumn, the harvest season, with millet and wheat everywhere in the fields. God knows how far he can reach.

This man chased Jin Zhun so hard that he had no way to escape. He was really cruel. He followed behind him at a distance, not too close, and lasted for a whole day, making the Xiongnu panic. People kept falling behind, and they dispersed on their own without him killing them.

Morale is the thing that is most easily overlooked. It includes not only military morale but also political morale.

Military morale was gone and the soldiers were dispersed.

The political morale is gone, just like those ministers who fled from the north of the city and left without saying goodbye.

Difficult, difficult, difficult, it’s a dilemma!

He was already 41 years old. If there were no external enemies, it would be fine for him to flee and wander again. However, with Wang Jun in the north and Shao Xun in the south, he had almost no possibility of being independent, nor did he have the time.

The Emperor of Pingyang could transfer him here and there with just one imperial decree. Even if there were old brothers willing to follow him, they would eventually be wasted in meaningless battles, and ultimately contribute to the power of the Emperor of the Liu family.

"Your Majesty, you can't hesitate any longer." Wang Yang sighed, "Shao Xun has been planning a siege from the beginning. How can he attack a city guarded by 50,000 soldiers with only 70,000 troops? He has not concealed it now. Once--"

Shi Le stopped him from talking and asked, "If we retreat to Santai, do you think there will be a chance of recovery?"

He did not mention the outer city. After this great defeat, the outer city was probably undefendable.

Do not believe?

The auxiliary troops of the Jin army have arrived at the city.

At the command of the officers, the defenders on the city wall drew their bows and shot arrows - but it was just shooting arrows, it could not be said that arrows were raining down.

Their skills were very poor, and not many of them knew how to shoot arrows.

The people who escaped back were in low morale and continued to spread panic to those around them. Moreover, they had thrown away most of their weapons while fleeing. Now, let alone bows, a spear for each person was barely enough.

Shi Le felt that if he and Wang Yang had not been standing on the top of the city wall, these frightened birds might have already run away.

The only solution now is to dismiss these demoralized soldiers and select elite troops to retreat to the relatively solid Santai, where they may be able to hold out for a longer time.

“Your Majesty, if we retreat to Santai, Shao Xun won’t have to dig trenches outside the city. He can just move directly into Ye, dig trenches and build walls outside Santai, and it will be done in a few days.” Wang Yang shook his head.

Shi Le hummed, as if he didn't notice the increasingly fierce sounds of killing in and outside the city. He just looked into the distance, frowning and thinking.

Wang Yang didn't rush him, but just waited silently.

In his opinion, after a few years of entering Yecheng, the Da Hu were no longer as decisive as before.

When I was under Gong Shifan, I ran away after being defeated, and then hid myself. After the storm died down, I came out again and gathered people to start a rebellion. What can you do to me?
But after changing from a roving bandit to a sedentary bandit, he had jars and pots, and so-called "ambitions", and he had more ideas, and they were no longer pure.

"Let's defend the city first." Shi Le patted Wang Yang on the shoulder and said, "You lead the command from the top of the city, and I will go to organize the defeated soldiers."

Wang Yang was a little disappointed, but he still nodded and said, "Yes, sir."

At this time, a personal soldier came to report: General Weiyuan Liu Da was trying to persuade Liu Da to surrender in the east of the city. He said that after Liu Da was captured, Chen Gong personally untied him, gave him food and wine, and brocade robes, and showed great care. Liu Da was inspired by Chen Gong and felt ashamed of his past mistakes, so he came to persuade Liu Da to surrender. Chen Gong only convicted Da Hu and did not question the rest. He surrendered the head of the bandit and was immediately rewarded.

Shi Le and Wang Yang looked at each other and were speechless.

Liu Da was a cavalry general of the Jie tribe and the cousin of Shi Le's wife Liu. He was given the rank of General Weiyuan, one rank lower than the Eighteen Cavalrymen who were generally fourth-rank generals. But he should not be underestimated because he really had followers and his own tribe, just like the Jin people had their own tribesmen.

Shao Xun, do you still have any shame? Try this trick!
At the same time, Shi Le felt a deep chill.

If even Liu Da could surrender, who else can be trusted?
(Add more and ask for monthly tickets, fellow Yanzu.)
(End of this chapter)