Chapter 2257: Sun Lingming vs. Yang Jian (Part 1)
Chapter 2257 Sun Lingming vs. Yang Jian (Part 1)
Chapter 2253: Sun Lingming vs. Yang Jian (Part 1)
Although Li Jing is not prepared to take all four passes for the time being, Tongguan is still not ready to let it go. After all, there are 40,000 Tang troops at Tongguan, including 20,000 elites.
If this army is liberated, it will also be a big threat to the Qin army, so it is best to solve it as soon as possible.
In addition, once the Qin army captures Tongguan, it will be equivalent to completely opening the east gate of Guanzhong. Not only will the 20,000 elites of Hangu Pass Tan Daoji be able to enter the Guanzhong to participate in the war, but it will also be more convenient to transport grain from Sizhou. .
"Zhang Liao, I have ordered you to lead 30,000 infantry and cooperate with Tan Daoji's 20,000 troops to attack Tongguan from both sides. Within half a month, Tongguan must be captured."
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Zhang Liao led the army away confidently.
Levels are different from cities. Although Tongguan is dangerous, it only targets one side. Under attack from two sides, the defense of any level will be greatly weakened.
When Zhenbeiguan was captured by Yuanmeng, the Qin army relied on a two-sided attack to recapture Zhenbeiguan from Yuanmeng.
Therefore, Zhang Liao was full of confidence in attacking Tongguan this time.
"Huo Qubing, I have ordered you to lead 30,000 cavalrymen, with Chang'an as the center, to patrol the entire Guanzhong. If any Tang army comes out of the city to support Chang'an, send troops immediately to defeat them."
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Huo Qubing also led his troops away with confidence. After all, the Tang Army's strongest Xuanjia Army and Feixiong Army had been forced by Huo Qubing to flee into Chang'an City, and the rest of the Tang Army was even more invincible.
The entire Guanzhong Plain is only 800 miles long, and Chang'an is located in the center of Guanzhong. If we calculate it as 400 miles from east to west, Huo Qubing could travel 150 miles a day at full speed.
In other words, once the Tang troops in the cities in Guanzhong leave the city, Huo Qubing can lead his troops to arrive in two days at most. By then, they will not be able to escape even if they want to.
Li Jing asked Huo Qubing to lead the cavalry to patrol Guanzhong, which was equivalent to blocking the way for the cities to fight and support Chang'an. After all, leaving the city meant actually facing death.
Zhang Liao led an army of 30,000 to attack Tongguan, and Huo Qubing led his cavalry to patrol and sweep Guanzhong. Although the two generals left with their troops, Sun Lingming, Gongsun Xuanyuan and other powerful generals stayed behind. After all, they would still be needed in the subsequent siege.
With the departure of the second general, the number of troops under Li Jing's direct control dropped to 90,000, which was already less than the defenders in Chang'an City, but he had no intention of giving up.
“How many defenders are there in the city of the fourteen counties that surrendered to our army?” Li Jing asked.
"Informed the Governor, after Xiaoguan was captured by our army, Li Shimin implemented a strategy of all-people troops and forcibly expanded the army regardless of the life and death of the people.
Nowadays, among the counties in Guanzhong, cities with large populations such as Huaili and Gaoling have at least 20,000 to 30,000 defenders, while cities with small populations such as Yunyang and Meixu also have 5,000 to 6,000 defenders.
The troops from the fourteen counties that surrendered to our army were counted. According to statistics, there were about 100,000 defenders. "
The Qin army that invaded Guanzhong was only 150,000, but the Tang army that surrendered reached 100,000. Including prisoners of war, the number of surrendered troops may have exceeded the Qin army.
Although the elites of the Qin army were consumed a lot, the number of troops increased as they fought. Instead of reducing the pressure on food and grass, it became heavier.
"However, more than half of these defenders are new troops, and less than a quarter are old county soldiers. Many of the defenders in the county are not even equipped with weapons. They are simply vulnerable and can only be used to defend the city and cannot carry out operations. Field battle."
After hearing the report, Li Jing frowned. This was the biggest reason why he didn't want to push Li Shimin into a hurry.
There are 100,000 garrison troops in the fourteen counties that surrendered. How many garrison troops are there in the twenty-four counties that have not yet surrendered?
If we attack one city after another, even if all the 150,000 elite Qin troops are killed, it will be impossible to capture the entire Guanzhong.
Li Shimin is really ruthless. He would rather fight to a **** ground than leave an intact Guanzhong to our Great Qin.
Li Jing thought to himself, and immediately ordered: "Send an order to the magistrates of the fourteen counties and order them to select 50,000 capable warriors from among the 100,000 defenders and send them to Chang'an to participate in the battle."
"Promise." A casual order gave Li Jing 50,000 more cannon fodder. However, these 50,000 people were too weak to fight. Even if they were all sent in, they probably wouldn't be able to consume many people in Chang'an.
Li Jing thought for a while and then asked: "How many prisoners of war from the Tang Army do our army have now?"
“I would like to report to the Commander-in-Chief, so far, our three armies have captured a total of 60,000 Tang troops. However, I am afraid that only General Xuanyuan’s 20,000 surrendered troops can obey orders, and the remaining 40,000 have not yet been fully trained.”
"We don't have much time to train these guys slowly. Let's all transfer them to Chang'an. If they don't obey, we will kill them until they obey." Li Jing said with an indifferent expression.
All the generals shuddered unconsciously.
50,000 surrendered troops + 60,000 prisoners of war troops + 90,000 elite Qin troops. The total force Li Jing will use to attack Chang'an will reach 200,000.
Although half of them were surrendered troops, the number reached 200,000 after all, and the formation alone was terrifying.
In the next few days, troops from all over Guanzhong continued to flock to Chang'an, but they were not the Tang army supporting Chang'an, but the surrender troops of the Qin army and the prisoners of war.
The county magistrates who surrendered to the city naturally did not dare to slack off at all after receiving Li Jing's order. They immediately selected elite soldiers from the defenders and sent them to Chang'an to assist in the battle.
With the surrendering troops passing through the area under their jurisdiction, most of them ignored them and allowed them to leave before they surrendered. However, there were also many defenders who chose to lead their troops out of the city to stop the attack.
The troops from Wu Xu and Su Yi surrendered. On the way to Chang'an, they were ambushed by Tang troops in counties along the way, led by Li Siyuan and Yu Wentai. They lost more than half of their troops and returned in a disastrous defeat.
However, the ambush of the surrendered Tang army was even worse. After the victory, most of them were attacked by the Qin army's cavalry on their way back to the city. Either the entire army was wiped out, or they suffered heavy casualties.
Huo Qubing divided his 30,000 cavalry into six groups, each with 5,000 cavalry, and patrolled all parts of Guanzhong to ensure that most areas were within the attack range of the cavalry.
Although there are not many 5,000 cavalry, facing the newly recruited county soldiers, even 50,000 are not enough to kill them. Only the armies of Li Siyuan and Yu Wentai have the strength to resist, but they are still no match.
In just a few days, Huo Qubing's cavalry defeated nearly 50,000 Tang troops who came out of the city to intercept them, killing 20,000 and capturing 30,000. They also broke through three undefended county towns, but their total casualties were no more than a thousand.
This also shows how weak the combat power of the Tang army in each county was.
After this battle, the county guards, including Li Siyuan and Yuwentai, no longer dared to go out of the city to provoke the Qin army, and the Qin army in Chang'an also had more and more troops.
Li Jing soon made preparations. Just when he was about to attack Chang'an, the Tang army in the city took the initiative to go out to challenge, and the general who came to challenge was the missing Yang Jian.
Seeing that the person who came was really Yang Jian, Sun Lingming was very excited. After all, this was the only opponent at the same level as him in the Tang Dynasty, so he quickly asked Li Jing to fight and said: "Grand Governor, please let me, Old Sun, fight."
Li Jing and Yang Jian have fought against each other more than once, and they are well aware of Yang Jian's power.
Gao Chong and Yuwen Chengdu failed to win together. At present, the only person in the army who can defeat Yang Jian one-on-one is probably Sun Lingming, so Li Jing naturally has no reason to reject Sun Lingming.
“Go ahead, you must win but not lose.” Li Jing nodded.
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Sun Lingming was overjoyed and rushed towards Yang Jian.
Although Sun Lingming won the previous battle with Kong Peng, he was not fully satisfied. He hoped that the battle with Yang Jian would be enjoyable.
(End of this chapter)
