Shicheng reinforcements came very quickly, 5,000 cavalry first, along the east bank of the Fu River south, only two days, that is, across the Shuishui River into the Huangpi County border, attack the soldiers and horses built in Changxuanling.

Although 5,000 enemy cavalry was not enough to expel the Huaidong Army from Changxuanling in the north of Huangpi City, and it was not even enough to disrupt the pace of the Huaidong Army's strong attack on Huangpi, it was enough for the rebel general Sun Jichang to see the hope of holding Huangpi City.

In Huangpi City on Saturday, it is neither big nor small, two long streets are connected with four city gates, and one street is six or seven hundred steps long, and there are layers of obstacles, trying to attack hard.

The houses in the city are lined up one after another, although most of them are brick and wood structures, but the fire prevention of the buildings of the people of the time should not be underestimated, the heavy eaves rest on the top of the mountain and the high wall of the horse's head, can not break through into it, stand on the periphery and set fire can only burn a section of the house, and it is difficult to make the fire into a piece, and the Huangpi will be burned through.

In fact, the defenders forced back from the city, and even piled up flammable firewood, grass and beams as barricades, and set fire to hinder the advance of the Huaidong army.

It's not a small courtyard, arson can burn through, attack Huangpi City, even if the fire attack can be effective in a short time, not to mention that the enemy reinforcement in Shicheng came quickly, and it didn't drag the mud and water at all, so people were helpless.

In addition to the 5,000 cavalry who entered Huangpi to help in the periphery and play hide and seek with the Huaidong army, there are also 20,000 cavalry-based reinforcements coming from the direction of Shicheng, and the soldiers and horses who are monitoring Hanjin City also see that the Hanjin garrison has moved out of Dongcheng in the past two days, and it is likely to cooperate with the sending of a group of soldiers and horses to join the reinforcements in Shicheng......

Although the Huaidong Army was not afraid of a field battle with the Yanhu cavalry, the more than 20,000 enemy cavalry who rushed to help obviously had no intention of fighting to the death with the Huaidong Army outside Huangpi City, but relied on its incomparable mobility in the hilly area to penetrate the flank of the Huaidong Army and pull back and forth. Before Huangpi City fell, the Huaidong Army could not gather reinforcements to the corners of the mountains and rivers to oppress, so it could not attack Huangpi City with all its strength without worries.

The infantry gathered by Lin Tie in the Huangzhou War Zone was only 60,000 in name, but in fact there were 90,000 in total.

In addition to staying in the camp, it was necessary to send troops to monitor the enemy in Hanjin and Tiemen, so that they could not move, so in front of Huangpi City, Yu Wencheng and Zhang Gou were the main forces, plus the cavalry battalion that cooperated with the battle, the total number of soldiers and horses in nominal name was 40,000, and the actual strength was 50,000.

"This old fox of Luwenzhuang will lead the main force of Shicheng reinforcements, and he will rush to the periphery of Shicheng by tomorrow noon at the latest," Gao Zongting pointed to the direction marked on the map, introduced the current situation around Huangpi, and said, "After the five thousand enemy cavalry came into contact with my Changxuanling soldiers and horses, they retreated to Xiaonan, and it is foreseeable that the main force of Shicheng reinforcements will also enter Xiaonan first." ”

"There are 25,000 reinforcements from Shicheng, 20,000 cavalry are the elite of Yanbei, and 5,000 foot soldiers are the elite of the luxury family, presumably the elite of the bottom of the luxury family," said Chen Yan, who rushed back to the front base camp to participate in the military discussion, "Hanjin and Huangpi were originally close, Xiaonan was on the flank of Hanjin and Huangpi, if you can't take Huangpi City before the reinforcements from Shicheng arrive, this battle will be difficult to fight......"

"You don't feel a backache when you stand up, if you come to fight, can you guarantee to take Huangpi before noon tomorrow?" Zhang Gou refuted Chen Zhen, Chen Yan and Zhang Gou were born in the same exile army, the relationship is the most intimate, and there is no obstruction in speaking, Chen Yan is a militant, in other words, he may work hard, take advantage of the night to attack, and defeat the defenders before tomorrow afternoon, and take Huangpi, but this is not Zhang Gou's style, he turned his head sideways, and suggested to Lin Jian and Ao Canghai, who presided over the military discussion, "Huangpi can no longer fight, and the soldiers and horses that pierced in before should also retreat from Huangpi City, and should be centered on Zhaohu Mountain and Changxuanlei, and shrink the defensive formation......"

Lin Jian looked at Ao Canghai and asked, "What do you think?" ”

"There is no hurry to annihilate the enemy, and our core purpose is to lure the soldiers and horses of Shicheng over," Ao Canghai said, "But it's not good to retreat too simply, I think it's good, Zhang Gou first led the shrinkage to Changxuanling, and alerted the reinforcements from Shicheng coming from the north, Yu Wencheng fought Huangpi according to the original plan, but he had to leave a little more spare strength......"

Shicheng is 300 miles away from Huangpi, only more than 200 miles away from Fancheng and Zaoyang, if Yanhu has more than 40,000 elites in Shicheng, it will be difficult for Chaishan soldiers and horses to pass through the hinterland of Suizhou - to lure out the soldiers and horses of Shicheng and contain them in the Huangpi area, which is the purpose of Lin Lian to beat Huangpi at the beginning.

Su Tingzhan only had more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in Shicheng, so he was alerted to the existence of the Chaishan Strange Soldier in advance, and he would be helpless.

"That's fine," Lin Jian said, "but we also need to consider the possibility that the enemies of Tiemen Mountain and Hanjin will gather in Huangpi......

"Yes, Ye Ji Luorong asked Haowenzhuang to rush to the east bank of the Han River, it is impossible to just ask him to lead reinforcements to save Huangpi. If Ye Ji Luorong handed over all the soldiers and horses in eastern Hubei to Haowenzhuang for control, he might transfer all the soldiers and horses from Hanjin and Tiemenshan to Huangpi, and take the opportunity to contain the main force of our army in Huangpi and not be able to move...... Gao Zongting said.

"If this is the case, then we can take advantage of the situation to gather the soldiers and horses who are monitoring Hanjin and Tiemen Mountain to Huangpi, and the water camp can also go ashore," Ao Canghai said with a smile, "In this way, shrimp and crabs will be gathered in one pot and stewed and eaten!" ”

Lin Jian picked up the charcoal pen at hand, drew a line in the north and west of Huangpi City, and said: "The enemy of Tiemen Mountain, separate us in the east, if you want to help Huangpi, you can only go around Xiaochang Shuangfeng Mountain, and you will come later; After Luwenzhuang led the Shicheng reinforcements to Huangpi, he would not enter the city, our army built a fortress in Changxuanling, and Zhang Gou led his troops to shrink to Changxuanling, so Luwenzhuang may dig a long trench on these two lines to block us out. Once the Chaishan soldiers and horses attacked Zaoyang and Fancheng and cut off their grain routes, Haowenzhuang's first reaction was to retreat to the east bank of the Han River, and it would be his best choice to retreat north by relying on the Han River or crossing the Han River to join Ye Ji Luorong and then retreat north. Therefore, we must deploy an elite all the way to the west of Huangpi, and be ready to cut in at any time and block the retreat of Luwenzhuang to the east bank of the Han River! ”

"Besides Zhang Gou, who else is fighting with me?" Chen Yan propped himself up on the side of the conference table and asked as he looked at the other generals with fierce eyes.

"You are really useless, I want to guard Changxuanling, it is already separated from the east, how can I compete with you for the position in the west......" Zhang Gou smiled helplessly.

Lin Jian looked at Ge Cunxin, Su Pinxiao, Hu Yu'er and other water camp generals, and said: "Chen Yan, Zhang Jiheng, Zhang Gou, and Yu Wencheng will all be sent to fight in front of the battle, except for Zhao Hu's 10,000 Jiangning forbidden camp army, I have no reserve soldiers and horses in my hands, and your water camp will transfer 20,000 people to the shore!" ”

Once the Chaishan soldiers and horses are dispatched and attack the hinterland of Xiangsui, they will be able to shake the position of the defenders of eastern Hubei, and the main force of the Huaidong Army in front of Huangpi will have to enter very quickly, without delay or hesitation at all.

Even if the Hanjin defenders abandoned the city and fled, the water camp would not have time to clear the obstacles in the mouth of the Han River and then pursue - clearing the obstacles in the mouth of the river with a width of six or seven hundred steps is not something that can be completed in three or five days - the water camp is not the main force in this battle, and the soldiers of the water army will inevitably go ashore at this time to be used as an infantry battalion to make up for the lack of troops.

Although the soldiers of the water battalion are not good at positional warfare, they are not bad as reserve soldiers and horses for pursuit battles.

Since Lin Jian ordered so, Ge Cunxin and the generals of the water camp had no room for bargaining, so they agreed to come down together and make arrangements.

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

Haowenzhuang led the main force of reinforcements and entered Huangpi at noon on the 27th, so that Sun Haoyuan led 5,000 foot soldiers to form a formation in the northwest of Huangpi, so that Meng An Chan sent the cavalry to attack around both sides of Huangpi City, attack the flank of the Huaidong Army, and force the Huaidong Army to retreat from Huangpi City.

The infantry against the cavalry, one is to take advantage of the favorable terrain, the other is to take advantage of the dense formation.

The cavalry-based Shicheng reinforcements came, and the Huaidong Army, which was dominated by foot soldiers, naturally could not spread out to besiege Huangpi to their heart's content, so they withdrew from the northern, western, and southern cities of Huangpi, leaving only about 5,000 soldiers and horses to shrink and form a formation in the eastern city.

Outside the east moat bridge, it is the position of Yu Wencheng's department to attack Huangpi City, the protection is strong, the surrounding is surrounded by a fence wall, and it is very close to the front base camp of Zhaohu Mountain, there are 5,000 soldiers and horses to shrink the defense, and they are not afraid of the enemy's three-way attack from the north and south wings and the defenders crossing the moat bridge from the city.

Luxury Wenzhuang led reinforcements to come, but also to solve the crisis of Huangpi, and then to stand firm first, the Huaidong army has 40,000 elite soldiers and horses on the left and right, he wants to eat the five thousand Huaidong soldiers who shrink the defense outside the east city, it is obviously impossible to complete the task.

"Thank you King Min for leading the troops!" Sun Jichang re-sent troops to occupy the four city towers that had become ruins, and re-controlled the Huangpi city wall in his hands, which was a little more reassuring. In only five or six days, he gave the Huaidong army such an embarrassment, Sun Jichang felt very embarrassed, but Hao Wenzhuang led reinforcements to come in time, and he couldn't say thank you for the sake of saving face.

Naturally, Luwenzhuang would not lead troops into the city, and it was enough for Huangpi City to have Sun Jichang's troops to guard him.

In fact, Sun Jichang fought so badly because he concentrated his troops in the city.

No matter how many troops are involved, the Huaidong Army will block the four city gates and hold them in the city, and they will not be able to give full play to their advantages.

The deployment of the garrison troops is usually based on one step of the city wall, one soldier and one auxiliary soldier, and the city of six miles is about 2,000 steps long, and the 4,000 defenders are barely enough to defend the city.

And Sun Ji often piled up 30,000 soldiers and horses in Huangpi City, and the guards were not too few, but too many.

When the defenders were suppressed by the heavy crossbows of the Huaidong Army, they had to retreat from the city and retreat to the city for street fighting.

With such a short front, the defenders simply could not give full play to the advantage of 30,000 people, and the front of the battle line could stuff 200 people into the sky - it seemed that the Huaidong Army could not give full play to the advantage of troops, but the denser the defenders were crowded, the narrower the defensive surface, and the stronger the Huaidong Army's oil cans and the scorpion crossbows and crossbows that entered the city with the army from behind the formation.

It is also fortunate that Sun Jichang has enough troops in his hands, can take turns to replace hand-to-hand combat, can bear great casualties, and can use flesh and blood to block the offensive of the Huaidong Army.

This is also the advantage of a narrow engagement area, the front of the Communist Party can only send three or four hundred people to fight closely, and 30,000 soldiers and horses take turns to fight again, and they can only fight for a month.

However, once the Huaidong Army was asked to slowly compress the 30,000 defenders into a narrower and tighter space in the center of Huangpi City, and then the Huaidong Army was asked to demolish the houses and courtyards near the city wall in Huangpi City, and move heavy crossbows such as stone-throwing crossbows into the city, Sun Jichang was afraid that it would be too late to cry at that time......

Luxury Wenzhuang was accompanied by Sun Jichang through every point of engagement in Huangpi City, the more he looked at it, the more frightened he became, the reinforcements would come two or three days late, and Sun Jichang might not be able to hold on! It was in this case that the defenders also accumulated more than four thousand casualties. If Sun Jichang only led 10,000 soldiers and horses to defend the army, with such a high number of casualties, maybe he would have asked the Huaidong Army to take Huangpi a long time ago.

If you don't want to make the heavy crossbows and oil tanks of the Huaidong Army threaten, it is taboo to concentrate soldiers and horses, and it is even more taboo to trap a city that can easily block the door for the Huaidong Army.

If the defenders were crowded together, it would be difficult to even turn around, and a boulder weighing more than 100 catties would be smashed over, how many people would die at once? At that time, if the military spirit can not collapse, it will already be a rare iron army in the world.

Luxury Wenzhuang does not complain about Sun Jichang, these lessons are the experience of the Zhejiang and Fujian army to pay tens of thousands of lives, Sun Jichang in addition to the siege of Yangxin when he was defeated, has not yet learned the Huaidong army's ability to attack the city.

But this time, Sun Jichang also learned a lesson, and Haowenzhuang asked him to send troops out of the city to set up camps, so he didn't hesitate and agreed immediately; Tasting the power of the Huaidong Army's heavy crossbows, he would rather fight with the Huaidong Army in the open area than force the Huaidong Army into a narrow area and fight hard with heavy crossbows and not fight back.

Under the cover of cavalry, digging a long trench along the outside of the post road that went out of the west city to Hanjin and out of the north city to Xiaochang, so that the defenders could go out of the city and spread out in the north and west of the city, so as to avoid the possibility of the Huaidong army blocking the city and beating in the city.