Thief Emperor

Chapter 382: Fight with confidence!
Although this was the first time that the Pinglu Army attacked the city, as expected, General Zhou had already deployed his main elite troops.

Neither Li Yun nor General Zhou Xu himself believed that the Pinglu Army could capture Yangzhou City on the first day of the initial battle. Therefore, they sent out all their elite troops on the first day. It was obviously not to capture Yangzhou City, but to show Li Yun and the defenders of Yangzhou City some power.

On my first day, I just fought casually and Yangzhou was badly beaten. How are you going to defend it later?
Therefore, the offensive on the first day must have been quite fierce.

And Li Yun must also defend this day and show the Pinglu Army some of his strength. This is a psychological game between the two sides, but also a dialogue between strengths.

These "cannon fodders", or the vanguard troops below the city, have basically been defeated at this point, but the archers on the city walls have already fired six or seven rounds of volleys. Some archers with strong arms can still hold on, but the weaker ones have fingers trembling slightly.

Li Yun waved his hand and said in a deep voice: "Archers rotate!"

Naturally, there would not be just one group of archers defending the city. There would be three or even four groups, who would take turns to go into battle. This way, they would have room to rest and could conduct more rounds of shooting.

The troops guarding the north gate were all led by Zhao Cheng. Although they did not have much combat experience, their basic military qualities were quite solid. After Li Yun gave an order, the archers on the city wall retreated without hesitation, and the archers who replaced them took over in just a dozen breaths.

At this time, the elite troops of the Pinglu Army had begun to cross the moat and approach the city wall.

In the final analysis, it was because there were too many of them. Although the archers defending the city did not need to be accurate, they only needed to have enough arrows to complete the "fire coverage", but Li Yun did not have enough arrows in his hand. It was basically impossible to suppress the enemy troops under the city by relying on bows and arrows.

As more and more enemies gathered under the city, Li Yun did not need to give orders. The brigade commander on the city wall shouted, "Pour the gold juice, pour the gold juice!"

Gold juice may not sound like a particularly bad thing, but it's actually fecal water.

And this is not ordinary manure water.

It is manure water boiled in a large pot.

If this golden juice is poured on people, not only will they be attacked by the smell, but they will also be easily burned. Once burned by this thing, they may be infected with fungi.

With the level of medical care in this era, you can only rely on yourself.

This thing is like a magic weapon for the defenders. On the one hand, it is easy to use, but the more important reason is that there are enough "raw materials".

There are at least more than 100,000 people left in Yangzhou city, so it is very easy for them to obtain raw materials.

Although it is a bit dirty, it is a cost-effective way of defending the city. No general would refuse it. After all, pouring a bucket of golden juice can be as effective as several soldiers risking their lives.

As scoops of boiling gold juice were poured down, some of the Pinglu soldiers under the city wall were scalded by the juice, while others hid aside and vomited.

This smell is really unpleasant.

The person in charge of splashing the gold juice on the city wall also wrapped his nose with several layers of cloth, otherwise he would not be able to do this job.

When one group of Pinglu troops retreated, another group of Pinglu troops came up to replace them and continued to set up ladders and attack Yangzhou City.

The boiling oil and falling rocks on the city walls repeatedly repelled the attacking Pinglu troops.

By the afternoon, Li Yun, who had been supervising the battle on the city wall, lost interest. He casually shot and killed a general of the Pinglu Army under the city wall, then turned around and went down the city wall.

The advantages are too great.

It is extremely difficult to capture a large city before the garrison, supplies and food in the city are all consumed.

In another world, Wu Hou launched the second Northern Expedition, with tens of thousands of troops attacking Chencang day and night, which had only a thousand defenders. However, he still could not capture it after more than 20 days, and finally had no choice but to retreat.

Now, the disparity in military strength between Li Yun and the Pinglu Army is far less than that in the Battle of Chencang.

The Pinglu Army attacked fiercely for half a day, but they were unable to even set up a few ladders. When they finally did, the few ladders they did set up were quickly driven back by the defenders on the city wall using boiling oil or stones.

Yangzhou City is as stable as Mount Tai.

The reason why Li Yun was still worried and personally supervised the battle on the city wall for half a day was mainly because he did not have enough experience in military affairs.

If it was General Su Jingsu who was guarding Yangzhou, he would at most go up to the city wall for a patrol. When the real fighting broke out, he might not even go up to the city wall.

At most, you can go up to the city wall to see the scenery.

After descending from the tower, Li Yun called Zhao Cheng's two lieutenants and ordered them, "Chen Qi, Luo Chong, you two continue to guard the north gate, and send people to communicate with the other three sides. When the battle becomes tense, send someone to report to me."

Li Yun was certain from the beginning that the battle of Yangzhou would be a protracted war. After all, the Pinglu Army refused to give up, and he, Li, refused to abandon the city. He would continue to fight to see who could hold out.

Today's situation of defending the city also confirmed his idea that the Pinglu Army could not easily capture Yangzhou.

In that case, there is no need for him to waste time on the city wall.

The two lieutenants responded. Among them, Chen Qi was more familiar with Li Yun. He stepped forward with his head bowed and clasped his fists and said, "Sir, our lieutenant has not returned since he left the city with you..."

"Where did he go?"

Li Yun glanced at him and laughed dumbly: "Why? Do you suspect that I took your two thousand men outside and wiped them out?"

"Don't dare, don't dare."

Chen Qi quickly shook his head and whispered, "It's just that some of the brothers below are spreading gossip, so I want to ask for clarification."

"Captain Li's two thousand men suffered almost no casualties."

Li Yun looked outside the city gate and said calmly, "I have another mission for them. You will be able to see Captain Li in a while."

"Guard the city gate well." Li Yun stretched and said, "You two can take turns guarding the city. I'll come over later."

Captain Luo Chong exhaled a breath of foul air and bowed his head and said, "Sir, if the Pinglu Army only had this many people attacking the city today, you wouldn't have to come. This North City will definitely not be lost."

"If anything goes wrong, I'll bring my head back to you!"

Before today, everyone had heard of the Pinglu Army, so when they knew it was the Pinglu Army that was coming to attack the city, they were all a little nervous.

But after fighting for a long time, at least the generals and soldiers defending the North City can be said to be full of confidence.

The difficulty is too low.

Li Yun couldn't help but smile and said, "Okay, you guys guard it first."

"If anything happens, send someone to report to me immediately."

Both captains bowed their heads respectfully and responded.

Li Yun, on the other hand, went all the way back to the governor's residence, washed his face, and had someone prepare a meal for him. However, after taking a few bites, he felt nauseous and put the meal aside.

Du Qian happened to walk in at this moment and was a little surprised when he saw this: "Erlang has always been a good eater, why does he have no appetite today?"

Li Yun waved his hand and said, "Don't mention it."

"The golden juice used to defend the city has a terrible smell. It makes me lose my appetite."

Du Qian smiled and asked, "How is the battle at the North Gate?"

“It’s surprisingly easy.”

Li Yun stood up, stretched his body, and said with a smile: "For half a day, I didn't see a single Pinglu soldier climbing onto the city wall. The defenders of the city..."

"It's really a bit too advantageous."

At this point, he couldn't help but sigh: "Now that I think about it, if I hadn't taken Yangzhou by trickery that day, even if there were only 2,000 local troops defending the city, it would have taken at least 10,000 people to take the city head-on, and it would have been a tough battle."

Du Qian touched his chin and said softly, "So, Yangzhou City is as solid as a rock."

"That's probably the case before the food runs out and the city defense supplies run out."

Mr. Li smiled and said, "If Zhou Xu wants to take Yangzhou, there are only two ways. The first way is to surround Yangzhou until our food runs out."

"The second way is to use up all the city's defense resources by sacrificing human lives."

At this point, Li Yun narrowed his eyes and said softly: "After today's battle, I even thought about whether I could find a chance to lead the troops out of the city and steal their tricks."

Du Qian heard this and said with a smile: "It seems that this battle has greatly boosted Erlang's confidence."

Mr. Li laughed.

"Let's see how many people General Zhou is willing to sacrifice under the city of Yangzhou!"

…………

Sunset and dusk.

General Zhou looked towards the battlefield. After a long moment, he sighed helplessly, "Withdraw the troops, withdraw the troops."

Deputy General Gongsun Hao immediately lowered his head and went down to gather the soldiers.

Major General Zhou Chang was also looking at the battlefield, but he didn't dare to speak since his old father didn't speak.

General Zhou looked at Yangzhou City, was silent for a while, and sighed deeply: "I underestimated him."

"I originally thought that Li Yun's subordinates were just new recruits or even civilians. But judging by the way they are guarding the city, they are clearly a mature army."

Zhou Xu looked at Yangzhou City and frowned.

Zhou Chang looked at his father and asked, "Dad, it is impossible to take down such a big city in just one or two days, don't worry..."

"I'm not worried."

General Zhou looked towards Yangzhou and frowned, "I'm wondering if that old man Su Jingsu is still alive!"

He looked at Yangzhou and said in a gloomy tone: "These Jiangdong soldiers in Yangzhou City were trained by Su Laoer to help Li Yun..."

"Otherwise, how could a Li Yun grow to this level in just two or three years..."

At this point, General Su felt that this was more and more possible. He stroked his chin and muttered, "Maybe, this Li Yun is just a cover for Su Jing, and the old man is hiding in Yangzhou City now..."

"otherwise…"

General Zhou murmured.

"That's trouble."

(End of this chapter)