Chapter 2229: Strong walls and clear fields, Xiaoguan is in danger

Chapter 2229: Strong walls and clear fields, Xiaoguan is in danger

Chapter 2225: Strong walls and clear fields, Xiaoguan is in danger

Although Shangluo is not as good as Wuguan, it is undoubtedly a strong city. However, it only lasted for more than ten days before it was captured by the powerful Qin army.

 In order to conquer Shangluo County, Li Jing's troops also paid a heavy price, with total casualties reaching 20,000.

You know, the Qin army relied on a sneak attack to break through Wuguan, and the casualties had reached 20,000.

The casualties from the forceful attack on Shangluo reached 20,000, which shows how brutal the offensive and defensive battle at Shangluo was.

Of course, not all of the 20,000 casualties were Qin soldiers. At least 10,000 were prisoners of war from the Tang army.

After the Battle of Sizhou, the Qin army captured nearly 30,000 prisoners of the Tang army. Naturally, these people were the best cannon fodder to fight against the Tang army.

Li Jing was naturally reluctant to waste all the elite Qin army on siege, so he decided to use Tang army prisoners of war to attack the city, thereby consuming the Tang army's combat power.

After Li Jing dispersed all the prisoners of war of the Tang Army, he reorganized them into a separate army, and promised them that as long as they captured Chang'an, they would not only be freed, but also given the same treatment as the Qin Army. POW troops were able to obey orders.

In other words, the Qin army was on the front line of Lantian Shangluo. In addition to the main force of 100,000, there were 30,000 prisoners of war and an organized army, for a total of 130,000 troops.

In the Battle of Shangluo, the prisoners of the Tang army cooperated with the Qin army to attack the city, which greatly reduced the casualty rate of the Qin army.

In the end, the Qin army only paid 10,000 casualties and captured the strong city of Shangluo, killing 7,000 enemies and capturing 5,000 prisoners. Li Shimin and Yang Jian led the remaining 8,000 troops to flee to Raoguan.

"General, before the Tang army withdrew, they burned all the warehouses, and all the young men were transferred to Xiurao Pass. What we captured was an abandoned city." Xu Huang reported with a solemn look.

　　"The **** Li Shimin is really despicable. He deliberately left a city full of old and weak people to consume our army's food and grass. What the hell, bah." Zhang He cursed angrily.

Before Shangluo destroyed the city, the grain and grass had been burned by Li Shimin, so that now the people in the city had no food to eat, and there would be a famine soon.

If the Qin army does not provide food and grass for disaster relief, the people in the city will starve to death sooner or later, and this infamy will also fall on Qin Hao.

 However, if grain relief is provided, it will undoubtedly increase the food burden of the Qin army.

You must know that the Qin army's food and grass pressure is already very high, and it is only enough to support the frontline army for two months at most.

If Li Jing provided food to help the victims, it would undoubtedly shorten the Qin army's campaign time.

This is a naked conspiracy of Li Shimin. Regardless of whether Li Jing provides relief or not, the Tang State will benefit, but the people of Lantian will suffer.

After realizing Li Shimin's sinister intentions, Li Jing felt troubled and immediately asked: "How many people are left in Shangluo City?"

“All the young and strong people have been taken away by the Tang army, and now there are still 50,000 old and weak people left in Shangluo City.” Xu Huanghui reported.

 Fifty thousand old and weak people, that is, 50,000 mouths, is not too many, but it is still a lot. The Qin army can naturally afford it, but this will undoubtedly increase the Qin army's food and grass burden.

 “Give me the order to provide relief and food to the people.”

 Li Jing finally chose to provide disaster relief. After all, the lord was about to become emperor and his reputation must not be damaged.

“However, we can’t put in too much. We can just use the method of giving out porridge to ensure that the people have food and clothing. In this way, the pressure on our army’s food and grass will be much less.”

After the Battle of Sizhou and the Battle of Xiangyang, the food and grass supplies in Sizhou and Jingzhou were not rich. If the battle could not be ended in two months, Li Jing would have to retreat, so it was natural to save the remaining food and grass.

This incident also gave Li Jing a reminder. If the Tang army continues to do this next time, how should the Qin army respond?

 For the attacker, it is really an unsolvable problem to secure a strong wall and clear the field.

 Li Jing decided to write a letter to Ying Hao, asking Ying Hao to increase the supply of food and grass to deal with Li Tang's possible tactics of strengthening the wall and clearing the country.

 As for where the large amounts of food and grass come from? Then Li Jing couldn't care less. He believed that his lord would find a way. Anyway, he didn't believe that a country as big as Qin would really be reduced to the point where it would use up all its food and grass.

 After receiving Li Jing’s letter, Ying Hao was so angry that he wanted to curse him. Qin State does have surplus grain, but it is all in Jizhou and Hetao, thousands of miles away from Wuguan, and it will be several months before it is shipped.

At present, only Si and Jing are the only two places that can directly supply grain to the Wuguan front line. However, due to the two previous wars, the grain reserves in these two places are really going to be exhausted.

Since Ying Hao could not produce food, he could only urge Li Jing to end the battle before the founding ceremony. Otherwise, no matter how great the results were, he could only suspend the attack on Tang Dynasty and save his strength for later.

Ying Hao's response made Li Jing feel a lot of pressure. The insufficient food and grass in the rear also meant that once the Tang army strengthened its walls and cleared the country, the Qin army had no other way to deal with it except to consume military rations.

Li Jing felt extremely uneasy about this, but there was no way to avoid it. He could only hope that Li Shimin still had some humanity, would not pass the war on to the people, and would end the Guanzhong War as soon as possible.

Just when Li Jing was preparing to march into Raoguan, he received news of the defeat of Gao Chong and Yuwen in Chengdu.

After conquering Shangluo, Gao Chong and Yuwen Chengdu were ordered to pursue Li Shimin's defeated army, but they fell into Sima Yi's trick of luring the enemy and accidentally encountered an ambush by the Tang army, losing three thousand troops.

Li Jing has naturally heard about Sima Yi for a long time. The second son of Sima Fang, the elder of the Jin Dynasty, was also one of the only survivors of the imperial party in the Luoyang coup.

Li Jing only had two words to comment on Sima Yi, and that was: a cheating man.

As a veteran of the Jin Dynasty, Sima Fang should have had a loftier future, but he was implicated by his son Sima Yi and had to commit suicide to apologize. The entire Sima family was also implicated, and his future career was worrying.

What a misfortune our family has!

Li Jing sighed inwardly. He had a good sense of Sima Fang, but he didn't expect that he would end up like this.

On November 15th, Li Jing led his army to Aoguan. He thought he would see a dilapidated scene, but he did not expect that the restored Aoguan had begun to take shape.

If the Tang army is allowed to repair it for another month or two, the Tang army may be able to restore the grandeur of Guya Pass.

"How did Tang Jun do it in such a short period of time?" Zhang He asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“The Tang army gave up building the city wall and instead adopted the method of fortification and built a walled city on the old site of Yiguan. This reduced the defense, but saved time and was able to give full play to the geographical advantages of Yiguan.”

Li Jing said with admiration, a little curious in his heart about who could build such a city from scratch in such a short period of time.

Relying on the geographical advantages of Guya Pass, the defensive power of the city in front of us is not as good as that of powerful passes such as Wuguan, but it is no worse than that of fortified cities such as Shangluo.

This is destined to be another tough battle.

Li Jing thought to himself, but was not afraid at all.

After capturing Lantian, the Qin army captured another 5,000 Tang soldiers, bringing the number of prisoners of war back to 25,000.

With more than 90,000 elite Qin troops and 25,000 cannon fodder, it is only a matter of time to capture this mere Raoguan Walled City.

  inside the Pass.

Li Shimin helped Sima Yi, who was saluting, and said: "General Sima, I didn't expect that you really completed the task on time. It's a pity that the Qin army's offensive was too fierce and Shangluo couldn't hold on longer, otherwise there would definitely be a disaster here at Yaoguan. Stronger."

After saying that, Li Shimin showed a look of shame on his face. Sima Yi completed the task of rebuilding Raoguan as promised, but he lost the strong city of Lantian before he even arrived for a month, so that now the Aoguan Walled City has become Guanzhong. The final barrier.

How long can this newly built walled city withstand the Qin army?

"Immediately send an order to Changsun Wuji to lead Chang'an's 40,000 troops to Raoguan. I will have a showdown with Li Jing at Raoguan. The person who is locked up will be killed. If the barrier is broken, everyone will die." Li Shimin said with a determined look on his face. ordered.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　)

“Report...to inform my lord that a large number of Qin troops have appeared in the west, and Xiaoguan is in danger.”

"What?"

  Li Shimin, Sima Yi, Yang Jian and others were shocked.

 (End of this chapter)