Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2706 The Demise of the Tang Navy, the Crisis of the Cicada is Already Emerging

Dense arrows rained down like raindrops, but fortunately, the attacking troops formed small formations and used shields to cover their advance before getting close to the city walls.

However, once they got close to the city wall and put the ladder carts up, it was the dead of winter, and a bucket of cold water was poured on them, making them feel like they were about to ascend to heaven on the spot!

That tingling sensation is something that anyone who survived by sheer luck would never want to recall for the rest of their life!

Every siege battle was no less than a meat grinder.

The Jin soldiers braved a hail of arrows and rolling logs and stones as they frantically climbed upwards.

The Li Tang defenders on the city wall stabbed and thrust with long spears, poured boiling oil and ice water on them, and smashed them with rolling logs and stones!
Each ladder was like a death trap, with soldiers constantly screaming as they fell.

If someone falls from the ladder, even if they don't die instantly, they will be crushed to death by the falling logs and stones.

The corpses piled up like mountains below the city walls, almost reaching their height!
Li Shimin watched all this with a cold expression. If that was all there was to it, he was confident that even if Li Mu's 50,000 troops were wiped out, they would not be able to take his city.

However, he did not relax because of this.

What he was really worried about was not the attacking forces on land, but the attacking forces on water.

Cicada-shaped cities are built along the river, and such cities are known for being difficult to conquer.

After all, a city built in this way means that at least one direction of the city has an additional moat that is almost impossible to fill.

As for Nianchan City, it is surrounded by water on three sides, with only one direction leading to land.

In other words, Li Mu's land forces could only attack from one direction, which greatly increased the difficulty of his attack.

However, with the Li Tang navy suffering heavy losses, the advantage of establishing a city along the river has been suppressed to the greatest extent.

On the Jin side, the navy boasts a force of 50,000. If the enemy were truly determined to invest heavily in resources and forcibly melt down a river channel, how would their navy possibly defend against it?

Secondly, the current reserves of cicada larvae are not actually sufficient.

There was absolutely no problem with the stockpiling of military equipment; over the years, Li Shimin had accumulated a substantial fortune. Those who rise to power through war never neglect the stockpiling of military equipment.

However, the lack of food supplies is a major headache for him. The city only has enough food reserves for one month.

This is a fatal crisis for them.

In other words, even if Li Mu did not attack, but merely besieged the city, Li Shimin would not have been able to hold out for more than a few months.

Li Mu's continued offensive was solely aimed at resolving the war against the Li Tang dynasty as quickly as possible, in order to prevent further interference from the grasslands.

Within the Li Tang dynasty, there was a reserve of grain in the capital, but Li Shimin would not use it easily; he was preparing for the worst.

After all, any breakthrough by any of the three armies would directly threaten the capital. Wandu and the two inner cities were the most fortified defensive areas for the Li Tang dynasty.

Li Mu stood on the high platform, his face as calm as still water, his eyes as sharp as an eagle's.

As an emperor who rose from the ashes, Li Shimin's military capabilities were among the best in the world at that time. Don't be fooled by the fact that Han Xin easily conquered the southern part of the peninsula in the first Tang-Jin War.

However, this victory was only achieved because Han Xin, Qi Jiguang, and Zhang Liang worked together to severely damage the Li Tang navy.

However, even with the three of them working together, they managed to break through the Tang navy only by inflicting heavy losses on each other. Only after that was Han Xin able to use his strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses and gradually erode the southern part of the peninsula, but Li Shimin was helpless to stop him.

"Indeed troublesome..." Li Mu thought with a chill.

"General! Generals Xu Huang and Yue Jin's troops have suffered nearly half their casualties! Now it's General Tan's turn, should we...?"

Zhang Liao looked at the mountains of corpses piled up below the city walls, his voice trembling slightly.

The casualties are too heavy; Li Mu is clearly trying to wear people down with sheer numbers.

The casualties in just half a day are already equivalent to the casualties of three or four days in the previous month of siege warfare.

"No!"

Li Mu flatly rejected the idea, his voice resolute, "Tell Tan Daoji to fight to the death! Even if all his men are wiped out, they must be nailed to the ground beneath the city walls!"

A cold flame burned in his eyes, "Li Shimin, you are very strong!"

"But war is never a fair one-on-one contest! You only have 25,000 men, while I have 50,000 naval troops!"

"Order Xu Cheng to send the second and third waves of fire ships forward and burn through the enemy's water gates!"

The absolute advantage of the navy was Li Mu's trump card, and the source of his confidence in conquering this city.

As the order was given and the bugle call of "Ula la" sounded, the navy, which had been waiting for orders, launched another desperate charge!

Two hundred more fire ships, like moths drawn to a flame, split into two groups and rushed recklessly toward the relatively weakly protected water gates on the south and north flanks of Nianchan City!
As the flames blazed once more, the thick, dark smoke cast a shadow over Li Shimin's heart, adding a dark cloud to his mind.

"I'm afraid Kuki Yoshitaka won't be able to hold out!"

"Black Teeth Changzhi, take three thousand men, and lead the Wine-Swallowing Boy, the Blood-Red Gallbladder, and the Red Curtain to strengthen the defenses of the Water Gate!" Li Shimin quickly made the decision.

Given the Jin army's tactics, the large and small ice floes on the river are unlikely to hold.

Once the ice melts down enough, the enemy navy can really charge in, and with Kuki Yoshitaka's small force, they absolutely won't be able to stop them.

"The last general takes command!"

After receiving the imperial order, Hei Chi, who was standing beside him, immediately went to make preparations.

On the other side, as the ice on the river melted, Xu Cheng's warships appeared on the surface.

Helpless, Kuki Yoshitaka, who was guarding the water gate, could only send a message to the navy stationed in the water fortress to resist.

He naturally wouldn't let Xu Cheng's warships rush to the water gate; otherwise, given the height of the naval warships, a simple ladder would have been enough to support the naval soldiers climbing up.

The water gate and the water fortress are interdependent. If the water gate is lost, the isolated water fortress will be nothing more than a body of water with no way out, and will be easily destroyed.

However, how could the remaining Li Tang navy possibly withstand Xu Cheng's 50,000-strong navy? A five-fold difference in troop strength was a hopeless gap in naval warfare.

After two hours of bloody fighting on the river, the Li Tang navy was completely annihilated, with only Orochi leading a few hundred remnants to flee back to Nianchan City in a sorry state.

With the annihilation of the last part of Li Tang's navy, Xu Cheng's naval warships could directly reach the water gate, and the battle for Nianchan City had finally reached its most critical moment!
(End of this chapter)