After nightfall, Fancheng and Qiaodu District in the south of the city are full of fires, illuminating the night as bright as day.

There are still hundreds of remnants of the army in the city who resist stubbornly, but they have been divided into several pieces to surround it, Huang Zuyu transferred from the east city to the south city, standing on the south city tower, it is convenient to pay attention to the battle in the city and Qiaodu District at the same time, and now the four gates of Fancheng have been controlled, and the remaining hundreds of defenders have been divided and surrounded......

At present, it seems that the defenders of Xiangyang on the south bank of the Han River cannot cross the river on a large scale to aid Fancheng, but they must completely control Fancheng and Qiaodu before the enemy troops from Xinye and Nanyang arrive.

In the Qiaodu area, there were more than 100 enemy troops defending the west base and resisting stubbornly, and Huang Zuyu successively transferred troops and horses to supplement the bridge area.

Gao Hu rode a horse, walked up to the city tower, and said: "There are young people in the Xicheng private camp who ask to participate in the war with the army, I think we can pick some people from it......"

Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin led the attack on Fancheng with only 5,000 troops, and by this time the casualties had been as many as seven or eight hundred - the reinforcements would arrive in three days at the earliest, and before, the enemy army in Xiangyang would not give up recapturing Fancheng, and the enemy troops in Xinye and Nanyang would come before nightfall tomorrow at the earliest, especially if they intended to use the pontoon bridge to contain the enemy's attention, and there was really a lack of manpower.

Yanhu transported grain from Hezhongfu to Jingzhou, and adopted the method of transporting grain from sub-stations, with Luoyang and Ruyang as a station, Ruyang and Nanyang as a station, Nanyang and Fancheng as a station, Fancheng to cross the Hanshui to Xiangyang as a station, Xiangyang to Jingmen as a station, and the last station was from Jingmen to Jingzhou front line - the advantage of segmented or sub-station transportation is that the transportation efficiency is improved and the management of the people will become extremely effective. Song Fu and others also praised Fan Lan for his ability to govern the government, but it was a pity that he was willing to be a slave.

In order to ensure that the grain arriving in Fancheng could be transported to Xiangyang on the south bank by ferry and loaded on a ship at the iron pile wharf to Shicheng, Yanhu forcibly captured about 5,000 people in Fancheng, and set up large-scale private enterprises in Xicheng and Nancheng respectively. When Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin launched their sneak attack, these people had just returned to the private camp to rest after a heavy day of labor.

After the war began, there were some riots among the private people, but after the Huaidong Army took control of the four gates of Fancheng, the private riots subsided. Although a considerable number of people took advantage of the chaos to escape, more than 4,000 people were intercepted, and they were all temporarily concentrated in the private camp.

Gao Hu felt that the people were all captured by Yan Huqiang, so he could win them over and help defend the city to make up for the lack of military strength.

Huang Zuyu looked at Deng Qiaoshan, the commander of the army beside him, and said: "You are responsible for Qiaoshan in this matter-the people who are forced to accompany the army, just like us, they are all from haha, don't embarrass them." For those who were bent on returning to their hometowns, they were all given food as travel expenses in accordance with the regulations, and they were asked to leave Fancheng immediately without delay. However, we must first know the righteousness and tell them that the 200,000 soldiers and horses of the Huaidong Army are about to go north, and Yan Hu's army in Jingxiang will not escape the fate of being annihilated, expel Yan Hu and recover the Central Plains, which is just around the corner, and the situation no longer allows Yan Hu and his lackeys to do evil in the Central Plains, and they must also tell them that leaving Fancheng at this time is actually the same danger as staying in Fancheng...... Those who are willing to stay and defend Fancheng with us, we all welcome them, and they are all regarded as Huaidong reserve generals, and some policies in the Huaidong army must also be explained to them thoroughly! ”

Fancheng itself is Yanhu's logistics relay granary, Huang Zuyu and they came over, almost half of the 2,000 wagons were loaded with grain as a cover, and it was also to prevent Fancheng from being empty of grain, which could be used as a supply to hold on to Fancheng - as far as the current situation is concerned, there is no pressure at all to distribute grain as travel expenses.

Of the 2,000 wagons, a small half were loaded with armor and weapons.

At this time, the chariots equipped with armor and weapons were pulled into the city first, and Huang Zuyu naturally took Nancheng as the main camp in order to facilitate the control of Fancheng and the Qiaodu District in the south of the city.

Wagons loaded with weapons of war stopped in Nancheng, and bundles of arrows, knives and guns tied with hemp were brought out of the carts.

Bed crossbows, scorpion crossbows, crossbows, and flying contradictory vehicles, which were urgently needed in the immediate battle, were assembled on the spot on the long stone paved street inside the south city gate. Each assembly is quickly sent to the soldiers in the front line engaged with the enemy to increase the attack power of the enemy.

Because the oil tank is light and thin, it is fragile to be transported by land, and the oil tank is divided into thick clay jars, sealed in wooden boxes, filled with straw as a buffer, and will be divided into thin clay pots to kill the enemy on the battlefield.

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Due to Chen Xi's unexpected exit from the city, the Huaidong army advanced the sneak attack on Fancheng to tonight, otherwise it would have spent the night quietly outside the city, and the soldiers were all equipped and the weapons were assembled before launching the sneak attack, and the war would not have been so hard as it is now.

Zhou Bin is responsible for commanding the battlefield in the Qiaodu area in the south of the city, the bridgehead and the west base have been blocked, and each has a battalion in charge of the battle, so he stares at the iron pile wharf. Although the terrain of the iron pile wharf is low, but the enemy army that entered the iron pile wharf with the Xiangyang guard general Azig has accumulated to 2,000 people, although Zhou Bin personally commanded and suppressed the strength of the iron pile wharf has three battalions of elites, but the opponents faced are the elite of Yanhu's lineage, and they are battle-hardened, tenacious and aggressive veterans, they rely on the terrain of the iron pile wharf is not much advantageous, and they are very tenacious, so that Zhou Bin has some pressure.

At this time, a team of people came from behind, and Zhou Bin saw that it was Deng Qiaoshan who led a dozen soldiers and more than 100 ragged people to come over - to defend Fancheng, it is natural to make good use of these people, seeing that Deng Qiaoshan chose a group of people to support this side so quickly, Zhou Bin was not surprised, but the six bed crossbows that came with Deng Qiaoshan made Zhou Bin very happy: "Grandma's, it is much easier to fight these turtle grandchildren with these good things......

Zhou Bin hurriedly arranged the six bed crossbows to the high position of the front position and blocked the intersection that rushed up from the iron pile pier......

Maybe a bed crossbow can only shoot one or two people at a time, but the deterrent and deterrent power brought by the bed crossbow at the intersection is by no means an ordinary bow and crossbow ability, which is also the reason why the Huaidong army generals like to use heavy crossbows.

The soldiers' armor is all hanging, as long as they are not shot at the critical point of the face, and they rush against the rain of arrows, they may not even be seriously injured, but under the shooting of the bed crossbow, the heavy armor and shield will be easily shot through, and at this time they can only pray that the long eyes of the bed crossbow do not shoot themselves.

The main area of the iron pile wharf is on the river beach, from the river beach, is more than 200 steps of stone steps, the terrain is not much dangerous, so Zhou Bin used a crossbowman to block, Azig can still organize a pawn to hold a shield to suppress the attack, which is also very effective.

The bow and crossbow could not block the enemy from rushing in, and Zhou Bin could only use his armor to fight the enemy with a white blade to fight them back every time he returned.

Every time the enemy forces at the Iron Pile Pier were repulsed, there would be casualties on both sides. After all, the enemy soldiers are suppressing the attack, no matter how fierce the fighting spirit is, the Huaidong army is also fearless, and when the second batch of Huaidong generals make up for it, they are all wearing armor and hanging, so each time they can exchange smaller casualties for larger casualties of the enemy.

However, the enemy general Azig did not have the slightest intention of giving up the attack at that time, and Zhou Bin could understand his thoughts: the gains and losses of Fancheng were related to the victory or defeat of the entire Jingxiang battlefield, even if the enemy general Azig would fight out the 6,000 elites of Xiangyang, as long as it caused heavy casualties that were difficult to make up for in a short period of time to the Huaidong army that came to sneak attack, it would also create favorable conditions for the reinforcements who came to recapture Fancheng......

If this situation continues, Zhou Bin will have to consider burning the pontoon bridge and retreating to Fancheng.

Although the generals who attacked Fancheng with Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin this time, including Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin and other generals, all did a good job of horse leather shrouds, but the casualties were too heavy, if the enemy army in Nanyang arrived at Fancheng earlier than expected, Fancheng would probably gain and lose, which would be unfavorable to the entire battle situation.

Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin want to control the attrition ratio of their generals, and Sun Zhuang will lead reinforcements as soon as three days later, and may also isolate the enemy army from Fancheng.

The best result is to keep the pontoon bridge, contain the enemy army in Xiangyang at the bridgehead, make them unwilling to retreat, and make them unable to fight, and at the same time control Fancheng and Qiaodu area, and hold on to wait for the main force of the Huaidong Army in Huangzhou and Chaishan to fight and converge, and strive to annihilate most of the enemy army entering Jingxiang.

Obviously, the pontoon bridge is not lost, and in the case that there is still hope to recapture Fancheng, the Xiangyang enemy will take the initiative to destroy the pontoon bridge and open the passage along the Han River to the west, which requires a very great determination - once the Xiangyang enemy will have the determination to destroy the pontoon bridge, then he will inevitably quickly establish a ferry at the Baiyang Pass or Danjiang Estuary in the upper reaches of the Han River, and establish a channel to communicate the north and south of the Han River. Although this passage cannot be compared with Jingxiang, the earlier and faster this passage is established, especially before the main force of the Huaidong Army has advanced to Xiangfan, whether Yanhu continues to take Wuguan from Guanzhong, through Wuguan and Danjiang to transport materials to the south bank of the Han River, or the enemy troops on the south bank of the Han River cross the Hanshui from Xiangyang to the west through Baiyang Pass and Danjiang Estuary to retreat to Guanzhong, it is very advantageous.

If the pontoon bridge is kept intact, the enemy generals in Xiangyang will become hesitant and put the main elite on crossing the river to recapture Fancheng, and will not think of immediately establishing a river crossing channel at Baiyang Pass and Danjiang Estuary on the west and north banks of Xiangyang.

Once the main force of the Huaidong Army enters the Xiangfan area, it will be too late for the enemy to think of establishing a river crossing channel with Baiyang Pass on the north bank in the west of Xiangyang. Although the opportunity for the Huaidong naval army to enter the Xiangfan area was very slow, even if it could not compete with the luxury naval army for control of the Han River for the time being, the main force of the infantry battalion could go directly north, take the land route from Xinye and Xichuan counties, detour to the upper reaches of the Wuguan River and Danjiang River, and cut off the connection between the soldiers and horses of Jingxiangyan and Hu and Guanzhong.

How much success Jing Xiang can achieve in the first battle depends entirely on whether the mouth of Fancheng is sealed well or not.

Although Fancheng is the bottom of the entire Jingxiang area, this bottom is more than 200 miles wide from Zaoyang in the east to Baiyang Pass and Danjiangkou in the west, and the two main arteries leading to Guanzhong and Henan pass through here - the battle situation of the First Battle of the Seal is extremely changeable, and the requirements for the generals are extremely high.

Huang Zuyu is a deputy general of the army, and he is a senior general who will be promoted to the army next by Lin Tie, and he led the remnants of the Jian'an Army with Yu Wangao, Tang Fuguan and others to entangle with the luxury family in the deep mountains and old forests of southern Fujian for three years, and the flexibility of the battlefield and the resilience of the battle are better than most of the middle-level generals of the Huaidong Army; Zhou Bin has been in charge of military affairs for a long time and is very familiar with the situation in the Jingxiang area. Cao Ziangcai decided that Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin would cooperate to lead the front to attack Fancheng first, and decided to use Sun Zhuang's troops as reinforcements to support Fancheng.

Sun Zhuang was very dissatisfied with this, even if he led his troops to support Fancheng, the Fancheng battle situation was under his command, he was also quite dissatisfied, but he had to obey Cao Ziang's arrangement - in addition to Sun Zhuang's grasp of the complex battle situation in the early stage, it may not be comparable to the cooperation of Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin, and more importantly, the front attack soldiers and horses pretended to be a grain team, and the speed did not need to be too fast, and the second support army had to pass through the hinterland of Suizhou at a lightning speed and enter Fancheng, and the non-cavalry battalion could not win.

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The bed crossbow was pushed into the high position of the front position, blocking the opening of the iron pile pier to rush upward, and the enemy troops in the iron pile pier also clearly saw this change, and immediately withdrew a wave of strong attack and discussed countermeasures.

Deng Qiaoshan leaned forward and looked at the iron pile pier.

The whole wharf is mainly built on the river beach, and in order to expand the transportation capacity, even dig a space nearly 100 steps deep on the north bank, so that the entire iron pile wharf has a depth of four or five hundred steps. Several rows of stackhouses were built on the outside of the wharf, which served as a barracks for the defenders of the wharf, as well as for temporary storage of goods and dwelling for hard labor, which became a fortification for the enemy to defend the wharf.

Because the history of the iron pile wharf existed for a long time, it was not built temporarily after the occupation of the Yan army, these stackhouses were built by brick factories and were relatively strong, which was also the main reason why the Huaidong army failed to storm the iron pile wharf when it was not well prepared at the beginning.

Deng Qiaoshan came over and said to Zhou Bin: "Huang Zhijun said, don't fight too hard at once, leave some thoughts for the enemy army!" ”

Zhou Bin smiled, since the bed crossbows have been assembled and sent, then the scorpion crossbow and the tip crossbow will be sent soon.

The stacks on the dock are a strong defense against the armoured attackers, and it is difficult to attack them when the enemy's will is not weak, but although the scorpion crossbow and the tip crossbow are not as good as the heavy catapults, the stone bullets weighing twenty or thirty pounds are still enough to threaten these stacks.

As long as the opening of the enemy rushing up is sealed, and the enemy army is suppressed on the dock below, the battle will be much easier on this side. It's really not good, this time I came here and carried more than 10,000 catties of hot oil, which is enough to burn the stack room on the outside of the iron pile wharf, which is likely to store a large number of flammable goods!

Thinking of this, Zhou Bin said to Deng Qiaoshan: "The two scorpion crossbows erected at the head of the bridge, no matter whether the bridge is destroyed or not, you must always be prepared; Now that the people are available, you can dig a long trench in front of the east base with men......"

There is a distance of more than two miles wide from the south of the city to the iron pile wharf, and the east barrier is very small, only a 100-step square defensive base, although it blocks the enemy from the east from attacking the bridge crossing area, but it cannot be completely blocked. Even if the enemy reinforcements from Nanyang would come to Fancheng first and dig a long trench, they could only ask them to stay in the Qiaodu area outside the city for a day or two.

When the pontoon bridge is destroyed, the enemy general in Xiangyang can be asked to go to the west of Xiangyang to build a river crossing channel with Baiyang Pass and Danjiang Estuary on the north bank two days later. At this point, the time of day becomes very crucial. If the enemy troops on the south bank of the Han River were to retreat north through Baiyang Pass one step earlier, it would mean that there would be two or three thousand more enemy troops west of Zhechuan and from Wuguan to Shangzhou, and there would be an additional resistance for the main force of the Huaidong Army to cut off the Wuguan River and the Danjiang River from Xichuan.