Vol 2 Chapter 2828: Bai Qi stormed Puyang City, and hundreds of families besieged Yu.

Chapter 2824: Bai Qi stormed Puyang City, and hundreds of families besieged Yuhuangding

Le Yi, however, did not feel any joy because the incident was successfully covered up, because his brother Le Cheng would never come back.

Niu Hong didn't know Le Cheng's life or death, but he told him that Le Cheng had escaped from the battlefield before he was defeated.

The distance between Dunqiu and Puyang is not that far, not even a hundred miles. Since Lecheng fled the battlefield but did not return to Puyang, it means that he must have been caught up by Hao Zhao halfway.

 When he thought that his younger brother Le Cheng had died at the hands of Hao Zhao, even Le Yi, who had always been calm, could not suppress the grief and anger in his heart, and he almost wanted to eat Hao Zhao alive.

Looking at Le Yi's posture, Xun You couldn't help but sigh: "General Le, please show me your condolences."

The word "sorry" is easy to say but difficult to do, otherwise it would not breed so much hatred. However, Le Yi quickly adjusted it. After all, hatred will only affect his judgment of the battle situation.

The situation in Dongjun is extremely unfavorable now. If Le Yi is still driven by hatred and acts out of anger, then the Wei and Ming coalition forces in Dongjun will really be doomed.

 Cao Wei had a total of 80,000 troops in Dongjun, plus various defensive arrangements prepared in advance. Facing Bai Qi's 120,000 Qin troops, Le Yi originally thought that he could hold out for at least half a year, or even a year.

What Le Yi never expected was that the Qin army led by Bai Qi was so capable of fighting. In just one and a half months, the Wei army was defeated and only the two fortified cities of Yanxian and Puyang were left in Dongjun.

Not counting the ferry, there are fifteen counties in Dongjun, namely: Puyang, Baima, Yanxian, Dunqiu, Weiguo, Dongwuyang, Yangping, Dong'a, Fanxian, Gucheng, Linyi, Leping, Fa Ping, Liaocheng, Boping.

 But now the only two cities that were attacked by the Qin army were Yan County and Puyang.

 After this series of battles, the Wei army suffered a series of defeats, and the losses were naturally not small.

At present, the Wei army has only nearly 38,000 troops left, and more than half of the troops and horses were lost in the battle with Bai Qi.

As for the 40,000 Ming army reinforcements led by Lan Yu, Le Yi once regarded them as a hope of turning defeat into victory, and almost completed the feat of annihilating the Qin army. However, as Li Cunxiao arrived in Dongjun, the hope once again came to nothing. .

Jia Fu's army had a total of 30,000 troops at its peak. Although nearly 13,000 troops were lost in the defeat of Dunqiu, after adding the Feihu Army, there were still nearly 20,000 troops.

Lanyu's 40,000 Ming army could not defeat Li Cunxiao's 20,000 Qin army, which is actually understandable. After all, the Qin army was the defender this time.

But it is also defensive. Le Yi's 80,000 troops could not stop Bai Qi's 120,000 troops. This is a bit unreasonable.

As Lan Yu led the army into Dongjun, it had already gone through several battles in less than half a month, and the number of troops had dropped from 40,000 to 25,000, with a cumulative loss of nearly 15,000 troops. .

In other words, even if 50,000 troops have been lost, the current total strength of the Wei and Ming coalition forces in Dongjun is still nearly 65,000.

As for the Qin army on the offensive side, due to Bai Qi's steady and steady strategy, the casualties were much smaller than those of the Wei and Ming coalition forces, with a cumulative loss of nearly 25,000 troops. Most of the casualties occurred in the first storm of Puyang, and It was caused during the Battle of Dunqiu.

In other words, the 120,000 Wei and Ming coalition forces on the defensive side and the 120,000 Qin army on the attacking side defeated an army of 55,000 in just one and a half months, while the Qin army only spent 20,000 Five thousand casualties.

 It is not easy to achieve such a record despite attacking and defending.

Excluding prisoners of war, the Qin army still has 95,000 troops in Dongjun, and it still has an absolute military advantage.

On the other hand, the Wei and Ming coalition forces still have a total strength of nearly 65,000, but 20,000 of them are in Yan County.

 Including the Ming army that retreated from Dunqiu, there were nearly 45,000 defenders in Puyang City.

In addition to the 15,000 troops guarding each city, Bai Qi prepared to mobilize various armies including Li Cunxiao, with a total of 80,000 troops to attack Puyang City.

The walls of Puyang City are high and thick, and there are still 45,000 defenders in the city. Among the defenders are not only famous generals such as Le Yi and Lan Yu, but also fierce generals such as Niu Mo Wang, Jiang Wenhuan, and Yu Rongwang. Obviously, it is not that easy to break.

Logically speaking, Bai Qi would not choose to attack by force, because the casualties of a strong attack would be huge, but this time Bai Qi chose to attack by force. There are four reasons for this:

First, the morale of the Puyang garrison is extremely low after losing consecutive battles, and the overall combat strength is definitely much weaker than when the war began. On the other hand, the Qin army's morale is as high as after consecutive victories.

Second, Puyang was attacked by Jia Fu before, and the major fortifications were seriously damaged. Although Le Yi ordered repairs afterwards, because the core of the Wei army was in Baima at that time, the repair of Puyang had not been completely completed, so the defense for this attack was The force is definitely not as strong as last time.

Third, Bai Qi felt that after fighting all the way, the people of Yanzhou cheered and cheered, but the Wei army's resistance was stronger than ever. Bai Qi didn't know how Le Yi led the troops, but now he needed a tough battle to completely interrupt Wei Jun's backbone and luck.

As for the fourth point, naturally the Demon Sect has announced its participation in the war, and if it is delayed for another month or two, the Wei army will have more than ten or two hundred thousand reinforcements, so the Battle of Puyang cannot continue to be delayed.

As long as Bai Qi can capture Puyang, the passage to Jiyin County will be opened. At that time, Bai Qi can lead his army to advance directly, attack Jiyin County, cut off the connection between the western Yanzhou and the eastern Yanzhou, and thus cut off the connection between the western Yanzhou and the eastern Yanzhou. Wei Jun captured them all in one fell swoop.

If the Wei army in the west of Yanzhou is completely annihilated, there will not be much resistance in the central and eastern parts of Yanzhou, and it may even depend on the spread of the word.

Le Yi also felt a headache precisely because he knew that Puyang City was easy to defend and difficult to attack on the surface, but in fact there were many problems, and Bai Qi was serious about it this time.

Twenty miles outside Puyang City, in the Qin Army's camp, the commander of the Fourth Route Army of the Qin Dynasty Bai Qi, military advisor Tian Feng, as well as Qu Yi, Gao Lan, Han Meng, Zhu Ling, Xiao Yan, Wei Rui, Qin Niu, and Hao Zhao The generals are discussing a series of issues regarding Yan County.

“General, do you really want to attack Yan County first?”

Qin Niu asked with a puzzled look on his face: "There are only 20,000 defenders in Yan County now, but there are 45,000 defenders in Puyang. With the strength of our army, if we attack Yan County first, it will only take ten days and a half." , we can definitely defeat the city easily." In Qin Niu's view, Yan County is easier to attack, and abandoning Yan County to attack Puyang is an act of abandoning the near in favor of the distant.

As soon as Qin Niu said this, Bai Qi hadn't remembered to speak, but Tian Feng, as a military advisor, stood up and explained with a smile: "General Qin, the situation in the Central Plains has changed drastically. If we really wait ten days and a half, there may be another situation." Other variables appeared, and the difficulty of attacking Yan County was not small.

After Cao Cao voluntarily abandoned Guandu, the Wei army's western defense line moved back, and the military strength of Suizao, which is close to Yan County, has been improved several times. In addition, Yan County and Suan Zao are horns with each other. If you want to capture Yan County, you need to guard against the Suan Zao army. .

Our army does not have so many troops and time to waste on Yan County, so conquering Puyang as soon as possible and opening up the passage to Jiyin is the top priority. "

As soon as these words came out, Qin Niu and some of the puzzled generals suddenly realized.

Seeing this, Bai Qi asked Qin Niu below: "How long will it take for General Li Cunxiao to arrive?"

 “About one day later.”

In order to reach Puyang as quickly as possible, Li Cunxiao ordered Qin Niu and Hao Zhao to lead the army first, while he stayed behind to do the finishing work.

After hearing this, Bai Qi nodded and said, "In that case, let's not wait for him. Where are Qu Yi, Xiao Yan, and Wei Rui?"

 “The end will be here.”

The three generals stood up quickly after hearing the words, while Bai Qi said: "The three of you each lead an army of 5,000, and are responsible for sweeping out all the traps outside Puyang City, and filling in the moat of Puyang within three days, without any mistakes. "

Although Puyang City is high, the moat is not that deep. As long as all the traps outside the city can be cleared away, it will be more than enough to fill up the moat in three days.

 So after the three generals heard the words, they immediately responded: "Promise." Then they led the troops to carry out the mission.

 Looking at the departing figures of Qu Yi, Xiao Yan and Wei Rui, Bai Qi's eyes showed a trace of scrutiny.

These three people are all descended generals, and through Bai Qi's observation, they are all good at commanding troops, but Qu Yi has some flaws in his character, but the overall problem is not big. Xiao Yan is ambitious, but he also understands current affairs. Du Weirui was extremely satisfied with him in every aspect.

Bai Qi was not only the great general of the Qin Dynasty, but also the governor of Jizhou. All the generals in Jizhou automatically took him as their leader. They never dared to disobey his orders in these years, and there was a strong intention to promote him to represent Jizhou.

This shocked Bai Qi. After feeling a sense of crisis, he took the initiative to submit a rotation application to Ying Hao.

After the war in the Central Plains is over, Bai Qi will definitely be transferred away from Jizhou, so he wants to give the generals of the Jizhou faction some opportunities before leaving, so that they will not actively rely on them after he leaves. After all, he is the most I hate forming cliques for personal gain.

 At present, there are many capable people among the Qin generals in Jizhou, but the one that satisfies Bai Qi the most is Wei Rui.

 In short, the opportunity has been given to Bai Qi. How much credit they can achieve depends on themselves.

With the cooperation of three generals, Qu Yi, Xiao Yan and Wei Rui, it took less than a day to clear out the trap that Le Yi had set up urgently outside Puyang City, and then launched an exploratory attack with the purpose of filling in the moat.

At the same time, Li Cunxiao also led the Feihu Army and an army of 5,000 people to join Bai Qi and discuss the assignment of tasks for the next storm.

 It only took two and a half days for General Wei Rui to fill in the Puyang moat, and the natural next step was to storm Puyang City.

 After some thought, Bai Qi finally decided to adopt the strategy of using three out of three and concentrating his elite to attack one.

The Wei army in Puyang City was weak, but the Ming army was still very strong. If Puyang City was surrounded on all sides, the defenders would not be able to escape, but Bai Qi was worried that it would arouse the Ming army's desire to fight to the death. At that point, the gains outweigh the losses.

 After all, in this battle, conquering Puyang and opening up the Jiyin channel is the top priority, followed by severely damaging the effective strength of the Wei and Ming coalition forces.

In this way, the Qin army surrounded Puyang, surrounding the three gates in the north, south and west. Only the east gate was empty, leaving an escape route for the Wei and Ming coalition forces. However, even if the remnants of the Wei and Ming forces could escape, they would not be able to escape. The Qin army's pursuit was not an easy task.

Under Bai Qi's personal command, the 60,000 siege Qin army was divided into three teams, and also dispatched 300 catapults, 100 catapults, and tens of thousands of various bows and crossbows, and took turns to attack the west gate of Puyang in an orderly manner. Launch an onslaught.

After Bai Qi captured Baima City, the reason why he did not pursue the victory was because he was waiting for these siege equipment. After all, he guessed that Puyang would be a tough battle.

In addition, Bai Qi once took the initiative to make an emergency withdrawal from Baima to confuse Le Yi. However, since it was an emergency withdrawal, some heavy equipment could not be taken away.

In order to make the withdrawal more realistic, Bai Qi deliberately disassembled the catapult in the general and took away the important core crew. He only left the frame with Le Yi, so that even if Le Yi got the catapult, it would be useless.

After Le Yi invaded the Qin camp, he captured hundreds of catapults that Bai Qi had abandoned. Only then did he believe that Bai Qi was afraid of the encirclement by the Wei and Ming coalition forces, so he dared to lead his army to pursue them all the way to Baima Crossing. After all, hundreds of catapults were thrown away. A car is not a small number.

As for later, Le Yi fell into Bai Qi's plan, so that Baima City was easily captured by the Qin army. Although Le Yi ordered the burning of grain, grass and equipment before abandoning the city, the food and grass were burned first, and not all the equipment was burned. , so nearly half of the catapults returned to Bai Qi's hands.

 The general responsible for the first siege of the Qin army was naturally Li Cunxiao.

Le Yi was shocked when he saw Li Cunxiao coming. He quickly asked Niu Mowang to take charge of Ximen, but he still thought it was not safe. He also asked Erai and Jiang Wenhuan to support Niu Mowang at any time.

 At this point, the offensive and defensive battle in Puyang began.

At the same time, many masters from the Great Qin Consecration Hall and various schools of thought also launched a general attack on the Demon Sect’s headquarters, Mount Tai’s Jade Emperor Summit.