Number of People

  Chapter 1714 Deadlock of Renzi Scroll

   Facing the Xuanfu army attacking from all directions, He Huchen soon felt the tremendous pressure.

  The siege vehicles and ladders swarming up from all directions, coupled with the suppressive shooting of the archers who pressed directly under the city regardless of casualties, made the city itself in a difficult situation from the very beginning.

This kind of attack and defense is a battle of consumption. It is different from using the narrow bridge deck of the stone bridge to block firepower. The entire four walls of Gonghua City have encountered an overwhelming attack by the Xuanfu army. The surging Xuanfu army is at this time Only then did they really show their attack power.

  In just one hour, He Huchen found that the loss of his department exceeded 2,000 people, mainly concentrated on the spearmen.

"Master He, you can't hold it anymore, let's retreat." Zhao Keming almost knelt down and begged He Huchen, "Go from the west, there is still time, the Xuanfu army's offensive in the north is not strong yet, let's concentrate our forces to charge one time,…"

"Old Zhao, do you still want to break out of the siege at this time? You don't understand the tactics of encircling Sanjueyi? The Xuanfu army has 30,000 to 40,000 people, is there still a shortage of people to encircle the north city gate? As soon as Beicheng goes out, their cavalry will take advantage of the situation to hide and kill, and none of us will be left behind." He Huchen looked firmly at the Xuanfu army outside the city, which was still on the offensive, and said calmly.

After all, Zhao Keming is also a general who has fought in battle. How could he not understand such a simple truth, his face collapsed, and he said bitterly: "Then what should we do? If we can last for three hours at most, we will collapse. I just can't stand it..."

   "Three hours? Hehe, I can hold on to Amitabha for two hours." But He Huchen knew very well that under such a high-intensity impact, how could he and Zhao Keming's 8,000 people hold on for three hours?

The walls of Gonghua City are low, there is no horse face, and the defense system inside the urn city is lacking in various defensive facilities. It turns out that the garrison probably did not consider the need to defend the city here. In this case, it all depends on people. On the top, when encountering the Xuanfu army's attack regardless of casualties, he estimated that he could hold on for at most another hour, or surrender or collapse.

  Of course, our own resistance is not without results. The lethality of the firecrackers team is also reflected in this intensive charge and siege at this time. The corpses and wounded soldiers under the city wall are enough to prove all this.

   But this was of no avail. The Xuanfu soldiers and soldiers rushed forward one after another, and the battle had entered a fierce stage.

  If there is no foreign aid, He Huchen judges that he can last for an hour at most.

   "Then what shall we do?" Zhao Keming felt even more desperate when he heard it, "Then shall we..."

  Zhao Keming has completely regarded He Huchen as the backbone, even though He Huchen is ten years younger than him, but the tolerance shown by the other party has made him subconsciously obey the other party's orders.

"Persist a little longer." He Huchen murmured, "After all, we are all in the army of the Great Zhou, but in the future our Fifth Army Battalion will still have a foothold in the army of the Great Zhou. We were defeated by the Xuanfu army all of a sudden. How to explain to King Zhonghui? How will we gain a foothold in the Beijing camp and the Great Zhou army in the future?"

Zhao Keming is a confidant of King Zhonghui, and he immediately realized that perhaps this one had already expected that it would be impossible to defeat the Xuanfu army that was several times larger than his own in this situation, but he insisted on fighting, just for the sake of In the future, the Fifth Army Battalion will lay the foundation for the position of the Da Zhou army in the Beijing camp.

  Fighted very well in the stone bridge blocking battle, but now the city defense has been taken down in one fell swoop, so everything done before is meaningless.

   "Understood." Zhao Keming gritted his teeth, "Then we have to hold on for another hour, which can be regarded as an explanation to the prince and the court."

"Well, don't just see us sad, the Xuanfu army is also having a hard time. Let them understand that it's not that we are not strong enough to fight, but that they have too many people." What changes? What if You Shigong’s army can arrive earlier? Then we will be worth it.”

He Huchen really guessed right. When they and the Xuanfu army were fighting to the death for the city wall, the two cavalry led by You Shilu and Zhao Jiangong had already passed the Yu River quickly, and rushed towards Gonghua City along the Yu River. .

  The scouts have reported back that Gonghua City is facing a fierce attack from the Xuanfu army, and it seems that it may not last long, which makes You Shilu and Zhao Jiangong very anxious.

Once Gonghua City falls, there is no danger for Qinghedian to defend, and the Xuanfu army can push across to the capital city, and the army led by his brother is still east of the Yu River, and there is no time to stop the enemy. If there is any change in the wind direction in the capital city , or if the Beijing camp guarding the city surrenders to the enemy, then everything is irreparable.

  You Shigong explained the stakes here to You Shilu. It is absolutely impossible to let the Xuanfu army arrive at the city and cause the army to overwhelm the situation. This will change the mentality of the officials and people in the capital city and bring too many accidents and variables.

"Jiangong, I wanted to take a break before launching an attack, but I'm afraid it's too late now." You Shilu had already made up his mind when he was five or six miles away from the battlefield of Gonghua City, "I'm afraid the defenders in the city won't be able to wait." We surrendered when we caught up, so we had to do it right away."

Zhao Jiangong is also one of You Shigong's powerful generals, they are all old men who came from Yulin, and he said without hesitation: "Raising soldiers for a thousand days and using them for a while, our old guys are all old men who came from Yulin with adults , I don’t have other abilities, but I still have the ability to endure hardships and stand hard work, so what do you think?”

"Abandon everything else, and make a surprise attack with light equipment, in order to expand the momentum and let the defenders in the city know that the reinforcements have arrived. We don't want to kill many Xuanfu troops, but we want the Xuanfu troops to feel that the Jizhen army has arrived, so that they can't attack. If we attack Gonghua City with all our strength and keep Gonghua City, we will be successful, and it will take at most two hours for my elder brother to arrive, and the Xuanfu army will not even think about going one step further east!"

  You Shilu made up his mind, and Zhao Jiangong also understood the importance.

   "So how do we do it?"

"You attack from the north along the Yu River, and I attack from the east and south, in order to force the Xuanfu army to attack Gonghua City with all its strength, and then detour to harass, break through as much as possible and then retreat. What tactics to adopt depends on the situation. It depends, but it must not be surrounded by the Xuanfu army,..."

   and Zhao Jiangong exchanged tactical considerations, and You Shilu and Zhao Jiangong began to attack in the directions they determined.

  The six thousand iron cavalry divided into two routes to start operations from the north and the east, and You Shilu even split a route from the east to detour to the south to harass.

Zhao Jiangong launched an assault from the north with the hitting force. Originally, the Xuanfu army deliberately let go of the north, hoping to drive out the defenders in the city so that they could follow up with the cavalry. Unexpectedly, Zhao Jiangong's cavalry would suddenly attack from the north. He rushed out and caught the attacking army in the north by surprise.

Although it will not break the situation all at once, this surprise attack did boost the morale of the defenders in Gonghua City, especially when they saw three thousand cavalry sweeping past the city, the defeated Xuanfu army could only end up on the spot. After a series of responses, there was no energy to attack the city at all, and the pressure on the city dropped suddenly.

  The news quickly spread to several other cities, and both He Huchen and Zhao Keming were overjoyed.

   Soon You Shilu launched an attack in the south again, and the Xuanfu army quickly realized that the Jizhen army had begun to intervene in the battle situation, and there were traces of the Jizhen army on all three routes.

  Although only the cavalry appeared, it also meant that the main force of Ji Town was not far from the battlefield, and the Beijing camp guarding the city was also aware of this, their morale soared, and their resistance became more intense.

You Shilu's tactics were indeed very successful. He used the maneuverability of the cavalry to constantly harass the surrounding area, and even dared to break into it when the time was right to charge the rear of the besieging Xuanfu army. This was quite risky. It is very likely that they will be completely wiped out, but You Shilu also knows that if such a tactic is not adopted, the confidence of the various ministries of the siege Xuanfu army will not be shaken, allowing them to attack the city without distraction.

   Doing this one or two times will make the siege army always worry about being stabbed in the back, and its siege force will be reduced a lot.

This chaotic battle continued. The Xuanfu army rushed to the head of Gonghua City twice, but He Huchen personally led the reserve team to charge them down. At the most intense time, He Huchen himself killed two soldiers of the Xuanfu army. He received an arrow on his shoulder and on his helmet.

  When You Shigong Jizhen's main infantry striker finally began to appear on the horizon, and also cut off the line from Gonghua City to Qinghedian, Niu Jizong knew that he had lost his best chance.

   Now he will face the embarrassing situation how to deal with it.

If you continue to station troops under Gonghua City, if you can't pull out the nail of Gonghua City, you will be in a dilemma, and if you move forward, you can only start a big battle with the army of Jizhen, but thousands of troops in Gonghua City may strike in the back at any time. No coach can afford it.

If you take a step back, you can only retreat to the west of the Yu River, or you can control the stone bridge of the Yu River, and even build a few pontoon bridges on both sides of the Yu River, but even so, the two sides can only form a confrontation along the Yu River. situation.

If you can't break through and advance to the capital city, it will be meaningless, and it will put the Xuanfu army in an unfavorable situation. This is the border of Ji Town. However, tens of thousands of troops were stationed on this front line, and they failed to take down Gonghua City. The daily consumption of people eating horse chews was a big problem.

  And more importantly, what is the name of this army moving eastward now? On the side of the Qing emperor, punish treacherous evil?

  If Prince Yizhong can't achieve righteousness, no matter how strong his control over the Xuanfu army is, it will easily cause people's hearts to fluctuate. I'm afraid he will have to consider the next step or even another plan.

  (end of this chapter)