Northern Dynasties

Chapter 539
After finishing the conversation with Du You'an, Li Tai boarded the tower of Xiaruo Shu, looking towards Fancheng a few miles to the southwest.

Although Du Youan has no bottom line of integrity, in some places, what he said is true.Although Fancheng is already a lonely and dangerous city from the front, but when viewed from the side and rear, there is another vast world.

The broad Hanshui River connects the two cities on the north and south sides. From Li Tai's angle, he can clearly see the outline of Xiangyang City and the boats and boats moored on the pier. The same goes for the water jetty.

Although the current Han River has been reduced due to the season, exposing a large part of the embankment, it still does not affect navigation.As Du Youan said, if this section of the Hanshui Channel cannot be controlled, it will be impossible to cut off the supply line of Fancheng, and it will be very difficult to conquer the city.

The ultra-long-range return cannons can play a certain role in attacking boats and boats on the river, but if the enemy advances and retreats on a large scale, the coverage and damage caused by the two stone cannons alone are relatively limited.

Of course, this is only a normal situation, but the information and attitude shown by Du Youan, a descendant, show that Xiangyang is now in a very delicate period.Therefore, in many cases, it is difficult to predict through common sense, and how it will develop will only be known after the fight.

Li Tai thought in his mind that he would formally launch an attack on Fancheng after the arrival of the passers-by tomorrow, and at this time, Xiangyang was also a little confused because of the loss of Xia Ruogarrison.

"How long has the enemy army been attacking? Xia Ruo Garrison has fallen!"

Upon receiving the battle report from the north bank, Yueyang King Xiao Qi immediately summoned the Yongzhou clan to the state capital, shouting angrily with a livid face.

As soon as he finished speaking, a general stood up and said, "Du You'an, as the garrison lord, can't focus on defense. He didn't dare to fight hard when he saw the thieves. He went out and surrendered to the thieves. !"

"Xiazao's city is small and small, so it's hard to accommodate heavy troops! Its city is just a fort outside Fancheng. The two places are connected by water and land, and they are closely related. If Fancheng can provide timely assistance, how can Du Shuzhu surrender to the enemy in poverty?"

Another person opened his mouth to put forward another opinion, and his tone was even tougher: "Fancheng defender Liu Fanggui's mismanagement and poor defense, so that he lost all the guards, he should bear the first responsibility!"

"Shut up, wait. The battle is going on like this, and you still have to blame each other and be timid to take responsibility. Shouldn't you be more careful about how to resist the enemy?"

Although King Yueyang reprimanded him angrily, but he felt a little happy in his heart. He first looked at one of the generals and said in a deep voice: "Master Du Shu is trapped in captivity. I know Gongheng is also very anxious, but the battle is important now. Please refrain from your personal affairs and guard the peace of the country with all your strength!

Now that the bandits are forcing the north of the river, the defenders of Xiangyang have not dared to move lightly. Please go west and visit Xinxing and other counties, and invite them to cross the river to fight against the bandits' flanks. "

The person called "Gongheng" by King Yueyang is Du An, one of Du Youan's elder brothers, and a state governor. Hearing King Yueyang's order, Du An stood up and clasped his fists to accept the order: "Your Majesty, please rest assured. , the safety of the country is the most important thing, and in the last few days, I will visit and persuade my brothers to send troops to fight against the bandits!"

When Du An took the order to leave, King Yueyang will be close to him and the generals will assign tasks to each other, and finally he lowered his face and said: "Quickly tell Liu Fanggui that he must stick to Fancheng and not lose it, don't use it again The bad news of failure disturbs people! When it is time to rescue, I will rescue myself."

When the envoy sent by Liu Fanggui heard this, he could only leave the city with a bitter face, and then returned to Fancheng by boat, telling the general that there was still no rescue in the city.

Right now there are more than [-] soldiers and civilians in the city, Liu Fanggui's need for reinforcements is not very urgent.But who minds having more personnel power at their disposal?Especially in danger.So seeing the envoy's futility, Liu Fanggui couldn't help cursing inwardly.

Ever since he knew that King Yueyang had entered the town, he had been eager to gain authority and power, issued various decrees frequently, and wanted to arrange his royal entourage into the state capital, but was stopped by himself and other old people in the state capital, which made King Yueyang I have always held a grudge in my heart, presumably I want to take this opportunity to take revenge on myself.

As for the envoy's return of the hostility shown by Jingzhao Du's relatives towards him, Liu Fanggui felt that he had encountered an unwarranted disaster.In his view, the enemy only used two artillery vehicles. Although the power seemed relatively strong, the Xiaruo garrison was far from the level of destroying the city and killing people.

Although he was filled with resentment, he couldn't abandon the city defenses and go back to the rear to fight with those people in front of the enemy, the most important thing was to deal with the immediate business.

In the early morning of the next day, Li Tai first ordered people to survey outside Fancheng, and then set up two stone cannons in a convenient position for attacking.

Naturally, the defenders of Fancheng also saw the tragic situation of being bombarded yesterday when Xia Garrison was under fire yesterday. When they saw that they were about to suffer the same treatment today, they immediately panicked, and then some generals suggested to Liu Fanggui that it would be better to take advantage of it. Since the enemy army has not set up yet, send troops out of the city to snatch or destroy the two stone cannons.

Seeing that the number of enemy troops outside the city was not too large, Liu Fanggui agreed to this proposal after a little weighing.Although he mocked Du Youan's timidity in his heart, he was actually a little apprehensive about facing these two stone cannons.

Following Liu Fanggui's order, the side gates slowly opened, and the cavalry on the plains outside the city immediately noticed it, and quickly sounded their horns to warn.At the same time, hundreds of cavalry rushed out of the opened city gate and charged towards one of the stone cannons.

There are few horses in the south, but it does not mean that there are no horses. If you are willing to spend time and money, you can still get some horses in Shuzhong, Hanzhong and other places.Although the Shu horse is not considered the best quality war horse, it can also provide far more mobility than infantry.These Liang Army cavalry had been accumulating momentum for a long time, and they rushed out this time with great momentum.

Liu Fanggui looked at the hundreds of cavalry rushing out of the city, and felt a sweat in his heart. These are all the cavalry combat units that can be assembled in Fancheng. If they can't be effective, then basically bid farewell to the next field battle. A confrontation is possible.

When he saw that the enemy cavalry cruising on the battlefield didn't react immediately and gathered to block him, he was secretly lucky, but when he saw the enemy cavalry gathered and charged towards the opened city gate, he suddenly panicked. Leng.

Isn't the most important thing for the enemy on the battlefield at this time to protect the stone cannons that have not been erected yet?How did these enemy cavalry give up such an important ordnance and turn to the city gate?
He was still puzzled in his heart, but he saw that his own cavalry had rushed in front of the enemy's stone cannon in front of the dozens of foot formations, but the expected scene of destruction did not appear, and instead it was the flesh and blood of his own troops Fly.

They seemed to have bumped into a solid rock made of steel. Even Liu Fanggui hadn't seen clearly how the enemy counterattacked, but he had already seen his own cavalry fall down layer by layer!

At the same time, the enemy cavalry had already charged in front of the opened city gate. At this time, there were still infantry with swords and shields gathering in the gate to meet the cavalry. The sharp horse spear stabbed, and the formation that had just formed suddenly became chaotic.

Hearing the screams of fighting from below, Liu Fanggui broke out in a cold sweat. He didn't care about those cavalry sent out of the city, and hurriedly commanded a strong crossbow team to the city gate for support.

At this time, Xia Ruo was garrisoned under the city, and Li Tai had just finished reorganizing his troops. Seeing this scene, he hurriedly ordered Gao Le to lead the crowd to reinforce.It's a pity that the opportunity to fight is fleeting. When Gao Le led the rear troops to arrive, the team that almost broke into the city was forced to retreat by the enemy.

But the battle that lasted only for a short time has already caused heavy losses to the enemy, especially the corpses inside the city gate, so that the city gate could not be closed for a long time.

Although Gao Le wanted to charge for a while longer, but there were many strong crossbowmen in the city gate, and there were also reinforcements from the defenders' archers and crossbowmen on the top of the city. He could only retreat regretfully, and found a new target. The fleeing enemy cavalry were divided and surrounded, and they were quickly captured and killed.

Li Tai led his men to collect the corpses of the enemy soldiers on the battlefield, loaded them on ox carts and dragged them to the crossbow range in front of the city gate, and then shouted to the city to let their relatives and friends come in and collect them: "Our army enters the country only for punishment. The Liang army unjustly harassed my former division, not to torture and kill the people of Hannan! Our general Li Dadu ordered you to stay in the city, and the soldiers will not be injured. If you dare to go out of the city with weapons, you will not be spared!"

Hearing these shouts, the defenders who were still shocked by the vicious Wei army couldn't help whispering. To be honest, they really don't know why this war started. Do you have to fight?
Hearing the whispers of the soldiers, Liu Fanggui felt a little nervous in his heart, he hastily ordered the walls to beat the drums, trying to drown out the shouts.However, at this time, the two stone cannons had also been debugged and began to fire shells into the city.

Seeing this scene, the guards and soldiers who had witnessed the tragic situation of Xiazao garrison yesterday couldn't help but let out a cry of grief, praying to God and worshiping Buddha not to be hit by the lightning-fast cannon stone and end up with no bones left.

Two cannonballs were sent out, hitting the buildings in the city accurately, but the expected thunderbolt sound did not sound. Those cannonballs seemed to be much less powerful than yesterday. Instead of smashing the buildings, they rolled down the buildings onto the street. .

Some people who ran away in panic realized that the rolling down was not a cannon stone, but a stone wrapped in a thick burlap bag, and many paper balls were scattered from the damaged burlap bag.Then a curious and daring person stepped forward, grabbed the ball of paper and opened it for inspection, and found that there were characters written on the ball of paper, but they didn't recognize them, so they hurriedly called for someone who could read.

Someone volunteered to step forward and read aloud: "Master Du offered Fancheng to drive away King Yueyang! This, what does this mean?"

"And, and! What's written on this, this one?"

The people were overwhelmed. Although they couldn't figure out what these words said and the inner logic for a while, they felt inexplicably that something big was about to happen.

Liu Fanggui with a livid face rushed to hear the news and ordered to disperse the people gathered here, and then collected all the balls of paper rolled out of the sack, and checked them one by one, his face became more and more ugly.

Outside Fancheng, surrounded by his own soldiers, Li Tai rode his horse to meet the rear troops who had already rushed here.He also couldn't explain why he used this tactic, even if he disdained to associate with Du Youan and the like, such an attacking tactic could not be considered clever.

If you really want to find a reason for this behavior, it is to hope that the soldiers and civilians in the city will have a clear understanding, and then be wise and safe.Because the sword really has no eyes, when the real war starts, no one can discern the innocent.

(End of this chapter)