Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

After finishing the conversation with Du Youan, Li Tai climbed onto the Xiazuo Tower and looked towards Fancheng a few miles to the southwest.

Although this guy Du Youan has no bottom line in ethics, what he said is indeed true in some places. Although Fancheng is already an isolated and dangerous city from the front, if you look from the side and the rear, there is a vast world.

The wide Han River is connected with the two cities on its north and south sides. From Li Tai's perspective, he can clearly see the outline of Xiangyang City and the large and small boats moored on the dock. The Han River in the south of Fancheng is Same thing on the water dock.

Although the current Han River water has decreased due to the season, and a large section of the embankment has been exposed, it still does not affect navigation. As Du Youan said, if this section of the Han River cannot be controlled, there will be no way to cut off Fancheng's supply line, and it will be very difficult to conquer the city.

The ultra-long-range return cannon can play a certain role in attacking boats on the river, but if the enemy advances or retreats on a large scale, the range that two stone cannons can cover and the damage they can cause are relatively limited.

Of course, this is just a normal situation, but the information provided by Du Youan and the attitude he showed showed that Xiangyang is currently in a very delicate period. Therefore, many situations are difficult to predict based on common sense. You will only know how the situation will develop specifically after experiencing it.

Li Tai planned in his mind that he would formally launch an attack on Fancheng after the troops arrived tomorrow. At this time, Xiangyang was also in some confusion due to the loss of Xiaxie garrison.

"How many days did the enemy attack last? The garrison was actually lost!"

After receiving the battle report from the north bank, Yueyang King Xiao Jin immediately summoned the Yongzhou people to the state capital and shouted angrily with a livid face.

As soon as he finished speaking, a general stood up and said: "As the commander of the garrison, Du You'an couldn't focus on defense. He didn't dare to fight when he saw the thieves coming. He actually surrendered to the thieves. It's hard to absolve himself of the blame. !”

"The city of Xiazuo garrison is small and cannot accommodate a large number of troops! Its city is just a fortress outside Fancheng. The two places are connected by water and land, and are closely related to each other. If Fancheng can provide assistance in time, how can Du garrison become poor and surrender to the enemy?"

Someone else expressed another opinion, and their tone was stronger: "Fancheng guard general Liu Fanggui made a mistake in his deployment and defense, which resulted in the loss of many garrison units. He should bear the first responsibility!"

"Shut up, please. The war is going on like this, and we are still blaming each other for faults and shying away from taking responsibility. Shouldn't we think more carefully about how to resist the enemy?"

Although King Yueyang denounced angrily, he was secretly happy in his heart. He first looked at one of the generals and said solemnly: "Master Du Shu is trapped in prison. I know Gong Heng is also anxious, but the battle is urgent today. Please put your personal feelings under control and protect the peace of your hometown with all your strength!

Now that the thieves are approaching the north of the Yangtze River, the Xiangyang defenders do not dare to move lightly. Please go west to visit Xinxing and other counties, and invite them to cross the river to fight against the thieves' flanks. At that time, I will also attack across the river to prevent the thieves from disturbing the people by knocking on the river! "

The person who was called "Gongheng" by King Yueyang was named Du An. One of Du Youan's brothers was also a state governor. After hearing King Yueyang's order, Du An stood up and clasped his fists to accept the order: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty. "The safety of the country is of paramount importance, so I will visit you in a few days to urge my brothers to send troops to fight against the thieves!"

After Du An received the order and left, King Yueyang assigned the generals who were close to him to assign tasks. At the end, he lowered his face and said: "Quickly tell Liu Fanggui that he must hold on to Fancheng and not lose it. Don't do it again." The bad news about the failure is disturbing! When it’s time to rescue, I will send my own troops to rescue them.”

After hearing this, the envoy sent by Liu Fanggui could only resigned from the city with a grimace, and then returned to Fancheng by boat to inform the general that there was still no intention of rescue in the city.

At present, there are still more than ten thousand soldiers and civilians in the city, and Liu Fanggui's need for reinforcements is not very urgent. But who minds having more personnel power? Especially when in danger. So seeing the envoy's efforts in vain, Liu Fanggui couldn't help but curse secretly in his heart.

Since he knew that King Yueyang had entered the town, he was eager to establish his authority and seize power. He frequently issued various edicts and wanted to arrange for his royal entourage to move into the state capital. However, he was blocked by himself and other senior people from the state capital, causing King Yueyang to He has always held a grudge, and he must have taken this opportunity to take revenge on himself.

As for the envoy's report on the hostility shown by the relatives of the Du family in Jingzhao, Liu Fanggui felt that he had suffered an unreasonable disaster. In his opinion, the enemy only deployed two artillery carriages. Although the power seemed relatively strong, the garrison was far from the level of destroying the city and killing people. Du Youan himself was cowardly and asked to surrender. How could he blame himself?

Although he was filled with resentment, he could not abandon the city defenses and go back to the rear to fight with those people now that he was facing a powerful enemy. The most important thing was to deal with the business in front of him.

Early the next morning, Li Tai ordered people to measure outside Fancheng, and then set up two stone cannons in a position convenient for attack.

The defenders of Fancheng naturally saw the tragic situation of the garrison being bombarded yesterday. When they saw that they were about to suffer the same treatment today, they suddenly panicked. Then some generals suggested to Liu Fanggui that they might as well take advantage of the situation. Since the enemy army has not set up yet, they send troops out of the city to seize or destroy the two stone cannons.

Liu Fanggui saw that the number of enemy troops outside the city was not large, so he agreed to the proposal after weighing it briefly. Although he was laughing at Du Youan's timidity in his heart, he was actually a little scared about facing these two stone cannons.

Following Liu Fanggui's order, the side city gate slowly opened, and the cavalry on the plains outside the city immediately noticed it and quickly sounded the horn to warn. At the same time, hundreds of cavalry rushed out from the opened city gate and charged straight towards one of the stone cannons.

People in the south have fewer horses, but that doesn't mean there are no horses. If you are willing to spend time and money, you can still get some horses in places like Shuzhong and Hanzhong. Although the Shu horse is not the best quality war horse, it can still provide mobility that far exceeds that of infantry. These Liang Army cavalry had been preparing for a long time, and they rushed out with great momentum this time.

Liu Fanggui looked at the hundreds of cavalry rushing out of the city, and he was sweating in his heart. These were all the cavalry combat units that could be gathered in Fancheng. If they couldn't make it work, they would basically say goodbye to the next field battle. Confrontation is possible.

When he saw the enemy cavalry wandering on the battlefield, they didn't react immediately and gathered to stop them. He was secretly happy. But when he saw the enemy cavalry gathered and then charged towards the open city gate, he was suddenly stunned. Stunned.

Isn't the most important thing for the enemy on the battlefield at this time to protect the stone cannon that has not yet been set up? Why did these enemy cavalry abandon such important ordnance and turn towards the city gate to rush towards it?

He was still doubting in his heart, but he saw that his own cavalry had rushed into the enemy's stone cannon, which was composed of dozens of people. However, the expected scene of destruction did not appear, and instead it was the flesh and blood of his own people. Flying.

They seemed to have hit a solid rock made of steel. Before Liu Fanggui could clearly see the enemy's counterattack, he saw that his own cavalry were already falling layer by layer!

At the same time, the enemy cavalry had already rushed to the open city gate. At this time, there were still sword and shield infantry gathering inside the gate to meet the cavalry. Before they could get out of the city gate, they were attacked by the grown-up infantrymen. The sharp horse spear struck, and the already formed formation suddenly became chaotic.

Hearing the howls of fighting coming from below, Liu Fanggui suddenly broke into a cold sweat. He no longer cared about the cavalry sent outside the city, and hurriedly commanded a strong crossbow team to go to the city gate for support.

At this time, Li Tai had just finished arranging his troops at the foot of Xiazhe garrison city. Seeing this scene, he hurriedly ordered Gao Le to lead his troops to reinforce. Unfortunately, the opportunity was fleeting. When Gao Le and his troops arrived, the team that almost broke into the city was forced to retreat by the enemy.

But the battle, which only lasted for a short period of time, had already caused heavy losses to the enemy, especially the pile of corpses inside the city gate, so that the city gate could not be closed for a long time.

Although Gao Le wanted to charge for a while, there were many strong crossbowmen inside the city gate, and there were reinforcements from the defenders' archers and crossbowmen on the top of the city. He could only regretfully retreat and found a new target. The fleeing enemy cavalry were separated and surrounded, and they were quickly captured and killed.

Officer Li Tai collected the corpses of the enemy soldiers on the battlefield, loaded them on ox carts and dragged them to the city gate out of the range of the crossbows. Then he shouted to the city to let their relatives and friends come in to bury them: "Our troops entered the country only for punishment." The Liang army unjustly harassed my former division, not for the purpose of killing the people of Hannan! Our general, Governor Li, has ordered that if you dare to go out of the city with weapons, you will be killed without mercy!"

Hearing these shouts, Shang Zi was shocked by the ferocious Wei army. The defenders couldn't help but whisper. To be honest, they really didn't know why this war was started. When they heard the other party's shouts at this time, it seemed that they were not Must be beaten?

When Liu Fanggui heard the whispers of the soldiers, he felt a little nervous. He hurriedly ordered the war drums to be beaten at the top of the city, trying to drown out these shouts. However, at this time, the two stone cannons had been debugged and began to fire shells into the city.

Seeing this scene, the soldiers who were guarding the city, who had witnessed the miserable situation of the garrison yesterday, couldn't help but scream in grief, praying to God and Buddha not to be hit by the cannon stone as fast as a thunderbolt, and end up with no bones left.

Two cannonballs were fired, accurately hitting the buildings in the city, but the expected thunderclap sound did not sound. The power of the cannonstones seemed to be much less than yesterday. Instead of smashing the buildings, they rolled along the buildings and fell to the street. .

Some people who were running away in panic realized that what they saw rolling down was not a cannon stone, but a stone wrapped in thick sacks, and many paper balls spilled out of the damaged sacks. Then some curious and courageous people stepped forward, grabbed the paper ball, opened it and examined it. They found that there were words written on the paper ball, but they did not recognize it, so they quickly called for someone who could read.

Someone volunteered to step forward and read loudly: "The Du family is offering Fancheng to drive away King Yueyang! What does this mean?"

"And, and more! What's written on this one, this one?"

The people were excited. Although they couldn't figure out what these words described and the logic behind it, they felt inexplicably that something big was about to happen.

Liu Fanggui, who was ashen-faced, rushed over after hearing the news and ordered the people gathered here to be dispersed. Then he collected all the paper balls that rolled out of the sack and looked at them one by one. His face became increasingly ugly.

Outside Fancheng, Li Tai, surrounded by his own soldiers, was already riding his horse to meet the troops coming from the rear. He couldn't explain why he wanted to use this tactic. Even if he didn't bother to associate with Du Youan and the like, such a tactic to attack people's hearts couldn't be said to be brilliant.

If we really want to find a reason for this behavior, it is to hope that the soldiers and civilians in the city can understand and then protect themselves wisely. Because the sword really has no eyes, when the real war begins, no one can discern the innocent.