Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 679 Night Raid and Siege

On June 16, 300,000 Daliang troops arrived outside the city of Baoding in a mighty force.

The army set up camps for thirty miles, and a murderous atmosphere rose to the sky.

Baoding City is also a big city, but it is definitely not as good as Kyoto City, and it is not even on the same level as Kyoto City.

The city of Baoding was four zhang high and had six gates on all four sides, but it did not have any defensive buildings such as a barbican or arrow towers, nor did it have that many crossbows.

Since the Chongshan Town army occupied Baoding City for too short a time, the city’s defense supplies were not sufficient.

Therefore, although Chongshan Town was defending the city, the advantage they occupied in the city was not very great.

On the city wall, Yang Zhengshan looked at the camps connected together outside the city and a sneer appeared on his face.

"What do you think?" Yang Zhengshan looked at Yang Chengye beside him.

Yang Chengye knew that Yang Zhengshan was testing him, so he thought for a moment before saying, "Grandson thinks we should take the initiative!"

Yang Zhengshan laughed, "That's right. The most feared thing in war is a stupid battle. When the battle formations are deployed, soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals, that is a stupid battle."

"We can't stay still, nor can we let the enemy stay still. We must move, and we must also make the enemy move. Only in this way can we find the enemy's flaws and defeat them in one fell swoop!"

"Now we have successfully mobilized the enemy. They have left Kyoto and appeared here. Now it is our turn to take the initiative and attack!"

Yang Chengye's eyes sparkled as he looked at Yang Zhengshan with admiration.

Even though he is over 40 years old now, he still admires and respects Yang Zhengshan as before.

Yang Zhengshan reached out and patted his shoulder, saying, "Pass the order down, attack the camp from the city tonight!"

The Daliang Army just arrived outside Baoding City today and is currently setting up camp. Normally, this is not a suitable time to attack the camp because the Daliang Army will certainly be on guard.

However, Yang Zhengshan felt that this was a good opportunity. The Daliang army's camp had not been fully built, and not many defensive measures had been arranged, such as trenches, walls, traps, etc.

This means they can rush into the enemy camp more quickly.

"Who should we send to attack the camp?" Yang Chengye asked.

Yang Zhengshan looked at him and smiled strangely, "All troops are going to attack. We are attacking the camp not to harass them, but to completely defeat them!"

"This, we only have less than 80,000 soldiers?" Yang Chengye was a little puzzled.

Yang Zhengshan asked with a smile: "So what?"

Yang Chengye was stunned for a moment, then smiled, "Grandson understands!"

Yes, the enemy is numerous and we are few, so what?

When did we ever care about how many enemies there were and how few we were when we went to battle in Chongshan Town?

"Well, go and get ready! It's a good opportunity for grandpa to see your command ability!" Yang Zhengshan looked at Yang Chengye encouragingly.

Although the eldest grandson has less experience, his abilities are very good, and Yang Zhengshan is still very optimistic about him.

In fact, what Yang Chengye is best at is the management of military and political affairs. Over the years he has been in Chongshan Town, and basically all the big and small matters inside and outside Chongshan Town have to go through his hands. The sustained and stable development of Chongshan Town over the years is all thanks to Yang Chengye.

Feeling Yang Zhengshan's encouragement, Yang Chengye nodded confidently, "Grandpa, don't worry, your grandson will not let you down!"

After saying that, Yang Chengye strode down the city wall, while Yang Zhengshan continued to look at the Daliang army camp outside the city.

The dark tents connected together give people a strong sense of oppression.

However, for Yang Zhengshan, this feeling of oppression is not worth mentioning at all.

Yang Chengye went to assign tasks to each army, and Yang Zhengshan also found An Yuxing and the others.

In tonight’s attack on the camp, the innate warriors will also follow, and in this battle, the innate warriors are the protagonists.

The sky gradually darkened. In the Daliang army camp, Emperor Tianwu and his men were discussing the siege.

What they were naturally thinking about was how to capture Baoding City as quickly as possible.

This was different from the attack on Kyoto, where they had enough time to build siege equipment and slowly put pressure on the defenders in the city.

At this time, they were in a hurry to return to Hanzhong Prefecture. They had to launch an attack in a short time and defeat the Chongshan Army in the city as soon as possible.

"In just half a month, the Beiyuan Army and Chongshan Town's Western Route Army have already conquered four prefectures. At this rate, they will be able to reach Longnan in another half a month!"

Emperor Tianwu looked very unhappy.

Although they drew most of Daliang's elite troops to march to Kyoto this time, they also deployed a lot of troops in the southern part of Longyuan.

They originally deployed tens of thousands of troops in Longyuan in order to guard against Zhou Lan leading the Beiyuan Army to the south. However, these tens of thousands of troops were no match for the Beiyuan Army.

Even if they defended the city, they could not stop the Beiyuan Army from moving south.

What made Emperor Tianwu even more angry was that many prefectures and counties actually opened their cities and surrendered after encountering the Beiyuan Army.

Just as their Daliang army had been unstoppable in the past, capturing one city after another, now the Beiyuan army and the Chongshan West Route army are also unstoppable.

In fact, this is normal, because the officials guarding the city now are the same officials who guarded the city back then.

The same group of officials will naturally make the same choice.

The only thing to blame is that Daliang did not have enough available officials and could only appoint those officials who had previously surrendered.

"Your Majesty, I think we should launch the attack as soon as possible and start sieging the city tomorrow morning!"

Song Chenxing, the first strategist under Emperor Tianwu, spoke.

Daliang also had some wise ministers, such as Song Chenxing and Niu Sude. Although they were of humble origins and were once just scholars, they showed extraordinary abilities under the command of their Emperor Tianwu.

Take Song Chenxing for example. It was he who proposed that King Daliang occupy Hanzhong Prefecture. It was also because of his proposal that King Daliang got the opportunity to catch his breath and recuperate.

With his help, the King of Daliang laid a solid foundation in Hanzhong Prefecture and became the today's Emperor Tianwu of Daliang.

Therefore, the person that Emperor Tianwu trusted the most was Song Chenxing. Even Zhang Luan had to rank behind Song Chenxing. "Sir Song, this is not appropriate. Although time is tight, we must not act hastily. The Chongshan Army is not the 16th Battalion of the imperial army, and the commander on the opposite side is Yang Zhengshan, not one of those mediocre people in the Darong court!" Zhang Luan immediately persuaded.

Song Chenxing looked at Zhang Luan and said in a deep voice: "So what? Whether it's Yang Zhengshan or the Chongshan Army, do you want us to be afraid of the enemy and not move forward?"

"Senior Zhang, I know you are familiar with the important civil and military officials in the Darong court, but haven't we defeated enough civil and military officials in these years? Haven't we defeated enough elite troops?"

"We have fought with soldiers from Suzhou Town and Longbei Town, and they are nothing special."

"Although Beiyuan Town is stronger, it lacks military strength!"

"There are also the Emperor's personal troops and the Kyoto Imperial Guards, who are even inferior to our Daliang Army!"

"Senior Zhang, it's not that we are arrogant, we just don't have time to waste here!"

Zhang Luan had no reason to refute what Song Chenxing said, because Song Chenxing was right. Their Daliang Army was also a strong army that had experienced hundreds of battles, especially the elite troops in the Daliang Army, who were definitely veterans who had crawled out of a pile of dead bodies.

Those veterans may have experienced more wars than the veteran general Zhang Luan.

You have to know that when the King of Daliang was still a bandit, they were really fighting every day, either fighting or running away.

Zhang Luan understood this, but he always held Yang Zhengshan in awe.

Perhaps he himself did not even realize this, but he was somewhat in awe of Yang Zhengshan, which also made him have a little awe towards Chongshan Town.

Zhang Luan hesitated for a moment, thought about it, and could only say: "I think it is better to be cautious!"

Song Chenxing frowned slightly. He respected Zhang Luan, but he was somewhat displeased with Zhang Luan's caution.

No, to be precise, he is somewhat displeased with the current Zhang Luan.

When attacking Kyoto before, he felt that Zhang Luan was very powerful and had planned everything in Kyoto clearly.

But now facing Chongshan Town, he felt that Zhang Luan was being too cautious.

In fact, this is not Zhang Luan’s problem, but Song Chenxing’s problem.

Empiricism is at work.

What kind of enemies did Daliang face in the past?
The soldiers of the local garrisons, the bandits of Longbei Town and Suzhou Town, and the demoralized imperial guards were no longer the elite imperial army.

They won victory after victory, defeating one powerful enemy after another, and even defeated the imperial guards and the emperor's personal army, which were rumored to be extremely powerful.

Now if you tell them to be cautious, they will naturally think you are being overly cautious.

Considering Zhang Luan's strength and status, Song Chenxing did not say anything more, but just looked up at Emperor Tianwu.

Emperor Tianwu thought for a moment and said, "Then we will start the siege tomorrow!"

The walls of Baoding City were not very high, so a lot of equipment was needed for siege. All that was needed was enough ladders.

As for the rest, it’s nothing more than using more lives to fill the gap.

At this point they could no longer care about casualties and could only attack the city as quickly as possible.

Therefore, under the decision of Emperor Tianwu, the 300,000-strong army had just arrived at Baoding City and began to prepare for the siege the next day.

They had never considered that the Chongshan Army in the city would come out to attack the camp, and they never thought that Yang Zhengshan actually planned to have a decisive battle at night.

Not to mention others, even Zhang Luan didn't expect it.

……

The starry sky is exceptionally bright tonight, and the rising moon is like a glass lamp, freely spreading its cold moonlight, making the city inside and outside exceptionally bright.

You don't even need to light a torch to see the surrounding scenery clearly.

At three o'clock in the morning, the west gate of Baoding City was opened first, and 20,000 armored light cavalrymen, with their mouths sealed and their horses ringed, poured out of the gate in an orderly manner, and then divided into two teams to circle the city from the north and south.

Immediately afterwards, the South Gate was opened again, and another two thousand armored heavy cavalry and three thousand armored cavalry slowly walked out of the gate.

The Daliang army's camps were mainly arranged in the east and north of Baoding City. Since they had just arrived in Baoding City today, they had not yet had time to complete the arrangement of surrounding three sides and leaving one side missing, which gave the Chongshan army an opportunity.

Of course, the Daliang army also deployed many scouts around the city, and the Chongshan army was discovered by them not long after they left the city.

As the horns sounded, news of the unusual movements of the Chongshan Army quickly spread to the Daliang Army camp.

But this doesn't matter anymore, because the East Gate and North Gate were also opened.

dong dong dong~~~
The rumbling sound of war drums suddenly exploded in the quiet night, followed by the continuous sound of horse hooves.

Attacking the camp does not mean a sneak attack, and Yang Zhengshan has no way to allow 60,000 troops to approach the enemy camp quietly.

Therefore, this attack on the camp was an open and aboveboard attack. Of course, it would be better if the enemy could discover it later.

The Daliang army’s camp was not far from the city, only more than twenty miles away.

But don’t forget that the Daliang army’s camp is thirty miles long.

It is basically impossible to defend such a large camp and such a long fort so tightly.

However, the Daliang army reacted quickly. As soon as they received news of the unusual movement of the Chongshan army, the soldiers in charge of night watch in the camp had already strengthened their defenses.

In the commander's tent.

Emperor Tianwu hurriedly put on his clothes and crawled out of bed.

"Report, scouts have sent a message, enemy troops are leaving the city!"

"Report, the scouts have sent a message that a large number of enemy cavalry are rushing towards our camp!"

"Report, a large army has been spotted approaching from the south, west, and north!"

(End of this chapter)