Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2697 Three-pronged attack on the Tang Dynasty, the Battle of Anping

Xue Rengui's army, numbering 100,000, marched out of Liaodong, entered Xuantu, and then directly attacked the Li Tang homeland.

As for Li Shimin, the defensive focus of the Youzhou line has always been the two major military fortresses of Xiping County and Liangkou.

With these two military fortresses blocking the way, Xue Rengui's army could not threaten the inner city and Wandu city behind them.

As for Li Mu, after conquering Lelang with an army of 40,000, he did not take charge of the Li Tang territory west of Lelang; this area was left to Han Xin to manage.

He advanced all the way to Liekou and Nianchan City. Only by breaking through these two obstacles could he threaten the current center of the Li Tang Dynasty, the city of Guonei and the city of Wandu.

Han Xin, who already controlled the entire southern part of the Korean Peninsula, was responsible for leading an army of 50,000 to clear out the area east of Lelang County, and then marching north to attack the northeastern part of the peninsula.

The threat from the northeast extends to both domestic castles and Maruto Castle, thus enabling a possible three-sided siege.

They launched a pincer attack on Goguryeo from three different directions.

With three armies and two naval forces cooperating, the total number of troops involved in this battle reached 270,000.

During the first Tang-Jin War, the Li Tang dynasty was at its peak, and at that time, it could mobilize 200,000 troops.

But after only two years, excluding those who died in the first Tang-Jin War and including the old, weak, sick and disabled who were laid off in the past two years, the Li Tang Dynasty still has 120,000 troops left to use.

In the past two years, Li Shimin was indeed forced into a corner. Even though he knew that a large army was pressing in and that there were menacing threats from the outside, he still cut 2 troops.

However, this did not change the fact that, starting this year, uprisings of all sizes began to break out across the Li Tang dynasty.

The people below had no food to eat; in fact, the entire Li Tang dynasty was short of food. Driven to desperation, the common people had no choice but to take that final path.

It is precisely because of the internal troubles in the Li Tang Dynasty that, although they still have 120,000 troops on the surface, a quarter of them are actually left in the country to suppress local rebellions and are unable to participate in the battlefield in time.

Therefore, the three armies together were almost three times the size of the enemy.

At this time, Xue Rengui's 100,000-strong army was facing the Yalu River, which was much calmer than before.

Even in the dead of November, the area was not completely frozen over. However, the river surface was covered with a large number of ice crystals.

Anping County, the first obstacle to Xue Rengui's attack on the Li Tang homeland, was located on the west bank of the Yalu River estuary, controlling a vital waterway.

The river is 300 paces wide and has a rapid current. The Li Tang army set up defenses along the river and built a large number of defensive fortifications.

Or rather, this region had already become the front line of the conflict between the peninsula and the Qin government when Youzhou was still a battleground between Qin Zhen and Liu Bang.

Therefore, there are a large number of military measures in place.

Although the military measures in Youzhou were briefly abandoned due to their diminished effectiveness after the Li Tang dynasty later invaded the area, this period was relatively short, making it much easier to rebuild and improve them.

The biting wind whipped up snowflakes, lashing the faces of the 100,000 Jin soldiers, who were already bluish-purple from the cold. Thick frost had formed on their armor, and each breath exhaled a long puff of white vapor. Even though they had prepared enough cotton-padded clothes beforehand, the soldiers were still suffering greatly from fighting in the freezing winter.

Xue Rengui reined in his horse and stood on a high slope on the riverbank. He wore a striking white robe and silver armor, covered by a black cloak, the edges of which were frozen stiff.

His gaze was like lightning, piercing through the wind and snow, firmly locking onto the fortress on the opposite bank that guarded the vital passage.

"Big brother!" Zhou Qing's voice was hoarse.

"The ice on the river is too thick, making it difficult for the rafts to move! The brothers tried several times, but they were all sunk! The enemy's arrow towers and catapults have a very long range, covering the entire river surface!"

Xue Rengui did not turn around, his voice as steady as a rock: "Order Han Shizhong to use all the catapults and oil to bombard the arrow tower on the riverbank facing the city gate! If the enemy cannot be suppressed, they will be dealt with according to military law!"

"Ding! Xue Rengui's White Tiger skill effect four is activated. When commanding troops in battle, if facing a foreign race, the commander's leadership increases by 3; if facing a fellow race, the commander's leadership increases by 2. The base commander's leadership is 102, and the current commander's leadership increases to 105."

Unlike the first Tang-Jin War, when Han Xin's army could only rely on the rear for logistics, the navy in that battle was basically concentrated there!

But this time the situation is different. After two years of development, the southern part of the peninsula is sufficient to help Han Xin obtain logistical support locally, so there is no need to send the navy from the Jin mainland to transport supplies to them.

It was precisely for this reason that the navy freed up a large amount of manpower and ships in the Second Tang-Jin War.

However, the river was too wide, so the catapults on the shore could not reach the enemy and could only hit the surface of the river.

The enemy's catapults hitting the river surface is fine, because that's where their Jin army's amphibious assault troops are. But if their own Jin catapults also hit the river surface, wouldn't that be disastrous?

For this reason, they could only use the catapults on their naval warships to fire, in order to suppress the enemy's firepower and cover their landing forces.

Although the catapults on naval warships were all small, they were too small to support large stones, so they were mainly used for launching oil canisters.

However, oil canisters are more destructive to these military fortifications than simple boulders.

However, due to the partial freezing of the river, naval warships could not pass smoothly and could only manually break through the partially frozen river to forcibly build a pontoon bridge.

"Here!"

With a wave of the command flag, after a moment of deathly silence, the enormous multi-story ship moored on the river suddenly let out a deafening roar!
boom! boom! boom!
The oil canisters, filled with flaming oil and gravel, tore through the wind and snow, leaving long trails of black smoke, and crashed onto the opposite bank like meteors!
A series of huge explosions rang out, and flames burst and rose up on the cold city walls and arrow towers!
Stones flew everywhere, and wood chips scattered in all directions. A watchtower was hit directly on the top, and amidst the ear-piercing roar, a raging fire broke out, illuminating the terrified and contorted faces of the soldiers guarding the city wall!

In preparation for the war against the Tang dynasty, the Jin dynasty had made extensive preparations twice, stockpiling countless military supplies in Youzhou and Qingzhou.

Therefore, at this point, Han Shizhong didn't hesitate to use the oil, recklessly unleashing firepower. If they ran out of oil, they could simply bring in another batch from the rear.

Last time, they failed to completely defeat the Li Tang dynasty. Now that they had finally started the second war, none of the generals wanted to see a third Tang-Jin war.

Therefore, they were not determined to bring this battle to a complete end for both sides.

(End of this chapter)