(Ask for a red ticket)

Outside the city of Huangpi, the soldiers are like ants, like a tide.

The two cities of Huangpi and Hanjin were occupied by the Jinghu army for a long time, and the luxury family abandoned Jiangzhou and fled north after the defeat of Shangrao, and the speed of action was beyond Hu Wenmu's expectations, so they abandoned the two cities of Hanjin and Huangpi, and did not have time to completely destroy them, so that the luxury family got two relatively intact fortified cities.

Huangpi City is protected by a moat that is more than ten zhang wide, and the ancient willows are shady on the bank, if it is not for the confrontation between the two armies, the autumn sun is just right at this time, and it is a good time to talk about the moon and enjoy the scenery under the willows.

Although the wide moat provided a protection for Huangpi City, it also restricted the defenders from going out of the city to counterattack.

Out of the four gates of Huangpi, there are stone bridges erected on the moat, and these four moat bridges are also the only four passages in and out of Huangpi City.

The Huaidong army was about to march under the city of Huangpi, and Ao Canghai immediately ordered Yu Wencheng to advance to ride under the cover of shield carts, partial vans and other weapons, and approached four stone bridges to block the defenders in the city.

Sun Jichang was originally a Linqing guard, Chongguan nine years of Yanhu Koubian, the front of the army pointed directly at Linqing, Sun Jichang led the troops to Yanhu without fighting. Such a general should be very pustular, the fact is just the opposite, after Sun Ji often descended to Yan, he worked extra hard in Jinan, and even took the lead in the first place to climb the head of Jinan City, and almost beheaded Lu Jingyan under the knife.

Whether it was the Datong battlefield behind, or the leading troops to clean up the northern part of Jin, and also led the troops to advance into the Guanzhong with Ye Ji Luorong, Sun Jichang was very hardworking, and repeatedly made military exploits, winning the trust of Ye Ji Luorong.

Carefully study the inside story of Sun Jichang in Linqing without fighting, it is rumored that Sun Jichang was once a general in Jinan, with the rank of cavalry captain, but in Jinan and the former Lu king Yuan Jiancheng fought for concubines and made revenge, Yuan Jiancheng sought revenge, and almost cut his post to the people, fortunately, he was quite well-connected in the army, but he was demoted to Linqing as a general, and his official position was demoted to six levels, and he was demoted to Zhaowu School. Sun Jichang held a grudge because of this, and Chongguan only voted for Yanhu for nine years.

Ao Canghai also has no time to study the truth of these rumors, but Sun Ji can often ask Ye Ji Luorong to send to guard Huangpi and plug the gap in the Huaidong Army, and most of them will not be incompetent. As one of the new annexes to Yanhu in the latest to surrender to Yanhu, Sun Jichang's department can also be called an elite with excellent armor.

Sun Jichang naturally knew that if the Sicheng Bridge was easily blocked by the Huaidong Army, the scorpion crossbows and stone-throwing crossbows of the Huaidong Army would be unscrupulously forced into the moat and frantically suppressed the city head.

Sun Jichang led his troops to defend Huangpi, and the first thing to solve was the problem of grain storage in the city, and in such a short period of time, there was no way to transport more materials before the Huaidong army pressed up. Once the Huaidong Army's stone-throwing crossbow was pushed in front of the moat, there was no stone-throwing crossbow in the city to fight against it.

On the one hand, Sun Jichang concentrated the bow and crossbow in front of the city tower, piled up the bricks and stones, and boiled the oil in the big iron pot with firewood and grass, so as to prepare for the Huaidong army to directly seize the city gate, and on the other hand, he ordered to open the city gate, send troops out of the city, and drive the Huaidong army away from the front of the Sicheng Bridge.

Sun Jichang also made some improvised shield carts in the city, and asked the soldiers to push them out of the city to fight, and the two armies fought hand-to-hand on the moat bridge.

Although the defenders who went out of the city to fight could be supported by the bows and crossbows on the castle tower, the outer end of the moat bridge was already eighty steps away from the castle tower. Although the bow and crossbow at the head of the city can shoot to the position of the Huaidong army, but the strength has been small, the Huaidong army has a shield car to form a wall, raise the shield as the top, look from the head of the city, dense and dense like fish scales.

The guards attacked from the moat, engaged in battle, shield against shield, dense shields against piles together, so that the spears could not find the gaps in the stabs, slashing indiscriminately, and the soldiers on both sides continued to fall, but soon called the soldiers behind to fill the gap. Behind the Huaidong Army's formation, the scorpion crossbow and the crossbow projected with winch force were able to throw arrows and stone projectiles as large as city walls and thick as spears into the enemy formation, which caused more casualties to the defenders than those on the engagement line between the two armies.

The defenders retreated, and the Huaidong army did not pursue, and the flanks and rear soldiers could quickly catch up, wielding shovels and picks to dig trenches in front of the moat bridge, and the defenders were to be completely blocked; Sun Jichang could only keep sending defenders to fight in turn, and he also sent cavalry to charge and kill in order to prevent Huangpi City from being completely blocked by the Huaidong army.

After the luxury family surrendered to Yan, the luxury Wenzhuang did not reserve, and analyzed the defeats of Yongjia, Huiji, Jin'an and Shangrao in detail to the Northern Yan generals, Sun Ji often dealt with the Jiangdong Left Army at that time when he was besieging Yangxin, and suffered defeats, but he did not have a direct and profound understanding of the Huaidong Army's large-scale warfare in the siege war.

If the Huaidong Army really has the ability to force hundreds of stone-throwing crossbows to the city in a very short time, it will not be a good thing for the Huaidong Army to completely control the perimeter of the moat.

**************

It was Cheng Wencheng who commanded the battle under the city, and Ao Canghai accompanied Lin Jian to watch the battle from the viewing platform in Zhaohu Mountain.

The Third Town Division of the Changshan Army was a soldier and horse obtained by absorbing the reorganization of the resistance forces in northeastern Jiangxi on the basis of the Shangrao War, with Yu Wencheng and Pan Wendu as the main and deputy commanders.

The source of the Gandong Resistance Army is relatively complicated, there are the old departments of the Ganzhou Army, and there are veterans who retired from the Eastern Fujian Army in the early years and returned to the fields, but more are the rebels in Gandong, and the skeletons of the grassroots military attaches are almost all composed of Jiangxi generals drawn from the Huaidong War Training School and various departments, and the enemy general Han Li has fought in Qimen in flesh-and-blood. It's just that the number of the Ganzhou Resistance Army is quite small, and in the later stage of the Shangrao War, it is also said that six or seven thousand people, when the Third Town Division of the Changshan Army was formed, although a large number of grassroots military attachés were added, the soldiers and horses quickly expanded to 15,000 people, and it can be said that the Third Town Division is still a young force that has not experienced much bloody battles.

Cheng Wencheng, Pan Wenshu and others fought under Huangpi City without hurry or impatience, and they were decent, although they called the enemy cavalry to rush out coldly, and the formation was a little flustered, and there were some unnecessary casualties, but on the whole they could still be stabilized, and they used shield carts and hook sickles to kill the enemy cavalry. Due to the limited width of the moat bridge, even if the defenders rushed out with armored heavy horses, they could only drive out with six or seven war horses at a time, as long as they could be carried by shield carts from the front, and they could be blocked with strong crossbows from the flanks.

"The traditional way of building a city and digging a city and river, I'm afraid it's going to be eliminated," Lin Jian didn't intend to completely seal Huangpi City in one day, and he was satisfied with the performance of Yu Wencheng's department, and stood on the high platform to watch the battle with Ao Canghai, talking about the defense of the city, "Digging a long trench, although it adds a defense, but also restricts the channel for counterattack, and loses the possibility of active defense, which is conducive to us to advance the stone thrower directly to the city to kill the enemy; However, seeing that Sun Jichang will not give in easily, we must be ready to fight in the streets! ”

The viewing platform is built on the west slope of Zhaohu Mountain, which is three or four miles away from the battlefield of Huangpi Dongcheng.

The new annexed army voted for the new master, and fought very hard, the two sides were entangled around the moat bridge for a long time, and the defenders were still rushing out in turn, and there was no intention of retreating easily, Ao Canghai frowned, and said: "It seems that these dogs and mothers really think that they can win the battle of Jingxiang......

Morale is like this, once there is the desire to win, the confidence to win, the will to fight will be firm; Before the Chai Shan soldiers and horses came out, the desire and confidence of the Huangpi defenders to win would obviously not be easily frustrated, which meant that it would bring a lot of trouble to the Huaidong army that attacked Huangpi, and perhaps it would really be a brutal street battle.

Lin Jian said: "Heavy crossbows, oil cans and whatnot, you don't need to save - since the enemies of Huangpi have such hard bones and are so difficult to gnaw, they must be broken off their bones and their sharp spirit must be frustrated!" ”

The oil tank is a pure consumable, and although the annex of smoldering coal provides sufficient raw materials for the oil tank, it is not an unlimited supply. The use of heavy crossbow weapons still faces serious wear and tear in use. A heavy stone-throwing crossbow often fires more than 100 stone bullets before falling apart.

Huangpi is the first battle, if the heavy crossbow and oil canisters are consumed in Huangpi, the next battle will have to be fought by the soldiers with flesh and blood - but then again, the first battle of Huangpi is to frustrate the enemy's spirit, must fight hard, fight fast, when the Chaishan surprise soldiers attack, will directly hit the enemy's backbone, the enemy is in chaos, the Huaidong army will be mainly chasing and destroying, and the dependence on the heavy crossbow is not strong.

De Lin Jian reminded that Ao Canghai called the herald down and ordered more heavy crossbows to be pushed onto the battlefield and handed over to Yu Wencheng to command and use.

**************

At this time, Gao Zongting ascended the viewing platform from behind and said: "A scout has just returned from the west bank of the Han River, and it seems that the Jingmen guards have the possibility of surrendering to the enemy......

"Hu Wenmu is indecisive, whether Jingmen is defended or abandoned, I am afraid that when Jingmen is encircled, he will not have an accurate idea, where can he expect the Jingmen guards to have the determination to defend the city to the death?" Ao Canghai turned his head and was also a little disdainful of Hu Wenmu, and said, "I just hope he can keep Jingzhou for a few more days." ”

Lin Jian is not very familiar with the Jingmen guards, he originally intended to directly order Hu Wenmu to give up Jingmen, but later, out of various considerations, he did not directly interfere with Jingmen's defense and abandonment - Jingmen is likely to be lost soon, Lin Jian is not surprised, if Ye Ji Luorong can't even gnaw Jingmen, the Jingxiang war will be simple.

Lin Jian said: "The enemy army is in eastern Hubei and there is a shortage of grain and grass, but I also know that I have to fill up the grain and straw in Huangpi first; Even on the side of Tiemen Mountain, Yan Hu hurried to send thousands of cattle and horses, so that the defenders could eat for a while; The west city of Hanjin is close to Hanshui, we can't besiege Hanjin to death, there can always be grain and grass from Hanshui into the city - Hu Wenmu only left a month's grain and grass for Jingmen, and it is indeed difficult to ...... if the Jingmen defenders have the will to stick to it."

After all the lands in Henan were destroyed, it was indeed a difficult problem for Yanhu to raise grain for the southern front, but Yanhu, especially Yanxi Zhuhu, was a nomadic tribe, and at the same time, a large number of herds moved south, and the cattle and sheep raised in the wild did solve part of the food problem for Yanhu.

In the concept of ordinary people, the Hu people herd horses, but in fact, the Hu people in Yanxi raise more cattle and sheep in the grassland.

According to the situation of the secret agents who infiltrated Yanxi by the military department, in the grassland of Yanxi, a family of five to seven Hu people often shepherded more than a dozen horses, dozens of cattle, and two or three hundred sheep.

In northern Shanxi, southern Yannan, and some areas of Henan near the Yellow River, due to the sharp decline in population, a large amount of cultivated land was given to the Hu people who moved inward as pastures, and the Hu people enslaved Han people, and the scale of the herd was even larger to the scale of dozens of horses, two or three hundred cattle, and thousands of sheep.

However, on the whole, Yanhu's grain and grass in Jingxiang are still in an extremely scarce state, and it is enough to continuously transport grain from Luoyang to the south through Nanyang to supply it - or to storm Jingzhou, and Yanhu can also get a large amount of supplies from Jingzhou City.

In the early stage, when the grain and grass were the most tight, Yanhu gave priority to supplying the eastern Hubei defense line, and also considered that the eastern Hubei cities had the possibility of cutting and encircling the Huaidong army, so they needed to reserve sufficient grain and grass. Only when there is food can people not panic, and only then can the defenders have the confidence to hold on to the city.

"Maybe Ye Ji Luorong's order to slaughter the city was also a factor," Gao Zongting said, "After the Nanyang Massacre, the rebel general Han Li slaughtered more than 2,000 women and children in Pengwanling, and Tian Chang also killed more than 1,000 prisoners in Shiheyi. Zhou Fan is now surrounding Jingmen, Pu Jieshi has led 15,000 people to the southwest to fight Yiling, Hu Wenmu is in Jingzhou City, and he does not have the courage to send troops to fight the enemy in the field! ”

Lin Jian had already cultivated a hard-hearted heart, and the Hu people killed, burned, and plundered, so he naturally had to pay for his blood debts, but he knew that the bloodiest and most tyrannical slaughterers were precisely those who surrendered to the past, and he gritted his teeth with hatred.

Lin Jian held the saber on his waist, his joints turned white, and said: "Blood debts always need blood to pay, this day is not far away, let them be rampant for a few more days!" ”

The defective officers and Yanhu officers who surrendered to the enemy and participated in the massacre, he would spare none of them, but those who surrendered ...... Lin Jian thought that Ma Yigong and Zhen's side lacked manpower to expand the offensive against the Li clan in Hanyang, and after the war, he could consider throwing a large number of prisoners into the Goryeo battlefield.

Gao Zongting said: "Maybe the Huaidong Water Battalion will go upstream and make a landing on the Jingzhou line, which can attract more cavalry from Yanhu to the vicinity of Jingzhou......"

In the city of Jingzhou, only 30,000 soldiers and horses are enough, and in order to prevent Huaidong soldiers and horses from landing on the shore from Jingzhou to help, Yan Hu will move more cavalry south, which is also inevitable.

"Let's wait for Yanhu's soldiers and horses to surround Jingzhou!" Lin Jian said, "For now, let's fight Huangpi first......

Gao Zongting was also in no hurry to suggest that Lin Jian send soldiers to Jingzhou to make a feint, and asked again: "How is Changxuanling over there?" ”

Ao Canghai said: "Sun Jichang didn't dare to drive his troops out of the city too far, Changxuanling built a fortress there, and there was no obstacle......"

Changxuanling is in the north of Huangpi City to the west, the south slope is 14 miles away from Huangpi City, the mountain is not high, but it extends more than 30 miles to the north, it is the southern vein of Shuangfeng Mountain in Xiaochang County, and it is to build a base in Changxuanling, which is to prepare for both.

The first is the siege of Huangpi, which will not be pretentious, but will fight with real swords and guns. If Huangpi City can be captured quickly, it will solve a lot of troubles in the future. Another is to consider that there may not be enough time to take Huangpi City, and the soldiers and horses of Chaishan are likely to have to attack the hinterland of Xiangxiang in advance, and Lin Jian will consider leading the elite infantry to directly bypass Huangpi City and go deep into the hinterland of Jingxiang to fight a war of annihilation, and Changxuanling can become a temporary supply base for the Huaidong Army to enter the hinterland of Jingxiang after Huangpi City.

In any case, the Huaidong Army built a fortification in Changxuanling, and when Huangpi City did not fall, it directly extended its tentacles to the depths of the eastern Hubei defense line, which would further attract the enemy's soldiers and horses in Shicheng and Suizhou to the southern foot of Dahong Mountain and to the line of Xiaochang Shuangfeng Mountain.

*****************

The Third Town Division of the Changshan Army led by Yu Wencheng was a young and inexperienced unit in the Huaidong Army, but this did not mean that the generals did not have the spirit of fighting and killing.

Sun Jichang led his troops to surrender Hu, and his armor was extremely sophisticated.

Yan Ji collapsed, a large number of the three sides and the Beijing camp army failed to flee south, or captured or died or surrendered, and a large number of excellent soldiers and armor of the border army were directly owned by Yan Hu. In particular, the Jingying Army is not strong in combat power, and because of the defense of Gyeonggi and the imperial family, it can be said that it is equipped with the most sophisticated armor in the world. In addition, in Yanjing City, there is also a huge arsenal with a large number of armor and crossbows, all of which must be captured by Yanhu.

Over the years, the Huaidong Army has invested a lot of manpower and material resources to build armor, although Yu Wencheng's department has only been formally established for four months, but the armor rate of generals has reached fifty percent, which is higher than the Chizhou Army, Jinghu Army, and Huaixi Army.

However, the new annexed army that surrendered to Yanhu, before it surrendered, was a well-equipped town army or border army or Jingying army, and then relied on the capture in the later period, the armor rate was even as high as seventy or eighty percent, and the bows and crossbows used were no worse than half a point of the Huaidong army.

The only difference is that the Huaidong Army has more heavy weapons.

Lin Jian asked Ao Canghai not to save the consumption of heavy crossbows in the first battle of Huangpi, so Ao Canghai asked the soldiers to push a batch of scorpion crossbows, crossbows and other heavy crossbows in reserve to the front.

Bed crossbows and a large number of tense crossbows can only be placed to shoot at the enemy, and when the two armies engage, the bed crossbows and crossbows that can only be fired horizontally lose their effectiveness because they cannot be placed in front of the formation; The penetration of the infantry bow projectile against the iron armor and the big shield is limited, and there is no way to deploy a large number of them in the array; The Huaidong Army's scorpion crossbows and crossbows, which have a range of three or four hundred paces, can not only attack the enemy's blockade, but also directly place them in the formation to attack the enemy's formation, which can show great advantages.

Scorpion crossbows and crossbow frames are equipped with small wheels, and they go out to battle with the foot soldiers, advancing and retreating.

At the receiving point, both armies used armor and spears to stabilize their positions, so that the other side did not have a chance to break in, and the lethality of ordinary bows and crossbows to armor soldiers was also limited.

And when a stone bullet weighing twenty or thirty pounds is thrown from a distance of three or four hundred steps, even if he wears an iron helmet and iron armor, and hits it, he will inevitably have his head shattered and his bones broken. When the giant spear is thrown, it pierces through the iron armor like mud through the river - when a body is nailed to the ground by the spear and struggles and screams, its shocking power is by no means comparable to that of one or two heavy feathered arrows stuck in the body.

After Yu Wendeng saw that the front formation was stabilized, he immediately deployed more scorpion crossbows and crossbows at the back of the formation or on both wings, and attacked the defenders who went out of the city to engage with dozens of stone bullets and several huge arrows at a time.

At first glance, the Huaidong army did not seem to be strong and unable to fight, but the Huaidong army became more and more stable, especially the more and more heavy crossbows gathered behind the formation and on the flanks - Sun Ji often couldn't resist such a large casualty, and seeing that the Huaidong army would not give him the temptation to easily approach the city and give him the opportunity to smash with rolling stones and wood, in the end he could only sit and watch the Huaidong army dig a long trench on the outside of the moat bridge.

After asking the Huaidong Army to dig out a long trench and completely block the passage out of the city to counterattack, Sun Jichang had the opportunity to truly understand the power of the Huaidong Army's intensive use of combat weapons.

Dozens of stone-throwing crossbows were assembled about four hundred paces from the base of the city wall across the moat.

Piles of materials were unloaded from the baggage, and quickly assembled into heavy stone-throwing crossbows as high as ten zhang high, and under the bright moon with a missing corner, it was like a giant beast lying there, with its tail raised high; Nearer, several nest carts quickly stood up.

The moonlight was fast, so Sun Jitang could clearly see the size of the stones moved down from the cart at the head of the city, thinking that if such a big stone was smashed directly on the head of the city, he didn't believe that the temporary war shed built with logs at the head of the city could stop it.

Sun Ji often believed that even if there were craftsmen in Huangpi City who were familiar enough, they would not be able to build one in three or five days, while the Huaidong Army erected more than 20 of them in one night outside the moat......

Stone projectiles weighing more than 100 catties were thrown, and the enemy tower in front of the city gate was hit by a blow, that is, it collapsed, and it was all in ruins after two or three blows. The nest car standing close to the moat is the bed crossbow and crossbow shooting platform for the Huaidong Army near the city.

Under the smashing of the Huaidong Army's stone-throwing crossbows, bed crossbows, and stumbling crossbows, the defenders could not gain a foothold in the section of the city covered by arrows and stones, so they could only dodge on both sides, or directly avoid the hiding holes under the city first.

And every time the city wall is hit by a stone bullet weighing more than 100 catties, the ground will shake, and the wall wrapped in bricks and stones will also have clear traces of branches, which makes people suspect that if they are hit several times in the same place, this section of the city wall will collapse.

The defenders dispersed, and no arrows were fired, so the Huaidong army immediately sent soldiers and people to swarm down, filling the cloth bags filled with soil into the moat, and at the same time filling in several passages directly close to the root of the city wall.

Because the Huaidong Army's march passage was staggered with the city gate, Sun Jichang had no way to go out of the city to counterattack while in the city.

Due to the Huaidong army's heavy crossbow on the city wall covering the strike ability is extremely strong, the nest car bed crossbow flat shot, the city with the scorpion crossbow projectile, can drive out a section of the city wall of the guards, Huaidong army can directly use the ladder to climb the city head, after the city head to gain a firm foothold, and fight with the defenders from both sides.

Sun Jichang also saw that he could not directly stop the Huaidong army from ascending to the top of the city, so he considered fighting street battles in the city.

Since the heavy stone-throwing crossbows of the Huaidong army can only be fired outside the city, the defenders retreat to the city and open up the depth, so as to avoid directly hitting the heavy stone-throwing crossbows of the Huaidong army, and after making the advantage of going to the city wall, they also avoid the disadvantage of insufficient heavy crossbows. Of course, as long as you are well prepared and fight street battles in the city, the defenders still have a good location.

Eastern Hubei itself is a remnant land, when Hu Wenmu abandoned Huangpi, the military and the people were withdrawn, and the luxury family did not leave the family in Hanjin and Huangpi, except for a small number of Ding Zhuang craftsmen, there were 30,000 defenders in Huangpi City, including 20,000 people in Sun Jichang's headquarters, and 10,000 miscellaneous soldiers from Ma Kuide, a general sent by Luo Xiancheng.

It has to be said that Yan Hu's means of restraining the new annexed army are very effective.

A high-ranking general like Sun Jichang would never think about surrendering at all, and those ordinary soldiers, not to mention the military household system of Yanhu to woo them, as long as they participated in the massacre, their hands were stained with blood, and they also blocked the retreat in their hearts, and they became even more crazy when they fought.

Although the Huaidong army said that the heavy crossbow was used to sweep the city wall so that the foot soldiers could use the ladder to directly attack the city, but after boarding the city, the heavy crossbow could not distinguish between the enemy and the enemy, so it could no longer cover effectively, and it had to fight with the defenders at the head of the city inch by foot. From the time when the soldiers came to the city, it was not until the fourth day that they completely occupied the east city gate and opened the passage from the east gate to directly attack the Huangpi city.

However, Sun Ji often dug a trench inside the east city gate, laid several barricades on the east and west long streets, and opened the frame to fight street battles.

Ao Canghai was not afraid of a war of attrition, so that Yu Wencheng's troops attacked from the east city gate in turn to fight street battles, and made Zhang Gou lead his troops to enter from the north city gate - the battle of Jingxiang, the total number of troops used by the two sides was as high as seven or eight hundred thousand, how could the Huaidong army win the final victory if it did not have the determination to fill in tens of thousands of lives?