ps: Thanks to Mo Sanpang, re-NSLM’s monthly ticket for encouragement!
Liu Chongba did not have a large-scale cavalry. As a military leader who was not highly valued in the Xuanwu Army, he only had more than 30 cavalry. These were captured by Liu Chongba during the battle against Liu Rengong the year before. At that time, he
But fighting to the death was really a waste of all my strength.
The entire Xuanwu Army was short of horses, and all the good horses were divided up by King Liang's personal guards - Yuan Congqinjun and Tingzi. Except for King Liang's personal guards, there were only three members: Zhu Youning, Ge Congzhou and Zhang Cunjing.
The generals had well-organized cavalry under their command, but they were not many. Zhu Youning had 1,500 cavalry, Ge Congzhou and Zhang Cunjing each had 1,000 cavalry, and the other Xuanwu generals could only use their cavalry as elite scouts.
Liu Chongba did the same, and regarded this thirty-horse cavalry as his heartthrob. After the Lu Long Army entered Dizhou, these cavalry were scattered out to investigate the Lu Long Army's military situation. Unfortunately, half of them were lost in one day.
Liu Chongba was so distressed that he almost shed tears. Later, he no longer dared to send cavalry out of the city, and these more than ten cavalry became the messengers in Yanci City.
The consequences of not having cavalry are quite serious, especially when facing opponents with large-scale cavalry. Since mid-April, Liu Chongba has lost all news outside the city of Yanci, and the entire surrounding area of Yanci is full of Lu troops.
Dragoon, his battlefield intelligence sources were completely obscured.
It was during these days that Liu Chongba wanted to understand one thing: why the Xuanwu Army never dared to launch a large-scale war against Hebei; why after Wei Bojun surrendered to Xuanwu, both Ge Congzhou and He Delun led troops to help Weizhou.
It has been a month since Liang Wang finally entered Hebei in a big way.
In the second year of Guanghua, in the spring when Li Chengzhong traveled through, Liu Rengong conquered Wei Bo in the south. Before that, Xuanwu Army had never had the opportunity to cross the Yellow River and attack Hebei on a large scale. At that time, the Lulong Army was at its peak, and Wei Bo Army had no choice but to fall to Xuanwu.
Then Xuanwu's army crossed the Yellow River. Ge Congzhou and He Delun received the urgent military order from King Liang and hurriedly led troops to aid Weizhou.
However, it was not until the Weizhou offensive and defensive battle lasted for a month that a large number of reinforcements from the Xuanwu Army rushed to the battlefield. It was not that the King of Liang was not in a hurry, but that the eight thousand Badu cavalry of the Lulong Army were too famous. The Xuanwu Army wanted to gather cavalry to fight.
Yuan Cong's cavalry, Wang Yanqiu's hall cavalry, and Zhu Youning's Xuanwu cavalry were gathered together, together with the personal guard cavalry in the hands of generals everywhere, to make up four thousand cavalry, all of which were handed over to the command of Zhang Cunjing and Li Sian.
At that time, King Liang once said to Zhang Cunjing, who was the best at cavalry warfare in the Xuanwu Army: "In this Northern Expedition, if you win, you will take all of Hebei, if you lose, the whole army will be exhausted. You must be careful." As Zhu Quanzhong said, once it fails,
The Xuanwu Army lost the ability to maneuver and faced the Hedong Army with superior cavalry. It was on the strategic defensive for at least three years.
In the end, Zhang Cunjing lived up to Zhu Quanzhong's trust and set up an ambush on Qingcaopo, defeating the Badu cavalry. The formation defeated the Badu cavalry army and suppressed Shan Keli, and won the first Hebei War in one fell swoop. After this battle, Lu Long's army continued
He didn't catch his breath, so the next series of defeats happened naturally.
If we want to trace the source of Shuo, before the Battle of Qingcaopo, Xuanwu and Hedong were in strategic balance. After this battle, Xuanwu fully established his strategic advantage over Hedong. Unfortunately, there was never a chance to make the Lulong Army truly surrender. Of course, there was no
He had the opportunity to build a large-scale cavalry. Otherwise, there would not have been more than 100,000 Xuanwu troops on the Jinzhou battlefield. Zhu Youning was never able to fundamentally defeat Li Sizhao, who had only 30,000 Hedong troops - because Li Sizhao had a large-scale cavalry in his hands.
Cavalry group.
Therefore, Liu Chongba, who became blind, could only wait in the city until he saw the Lulong Army's military formations surrounding them from three directions on the city wall.
The military formation remained at the foot of the city for a day, during which several groups of troops were replaced, but no attack was launched. Yanci City was not big, so Liu Chongba spent half an hour circling the city wall.
From West City to Beicheng, from Beicheng to East City. Then Liu Chongba saw clearly that the Lu Long Army was building a camp under the cover of the military formation.
Although Lu Long's army did not attack the city, they formed a formation in the city before dawn and did not withdraw until nightfall, which invisibly put great pressure on Liu Chongba's troops in Yanci City.
That night, Liu Chongba wanted to launch a night attack while Lu Long's army was still building camp, but Lu Long's army lit a row of bonfires hundreds of steps outside the city gate, and people added firewood regularly, and the flames continued until dawn.
Never extinguished.
Liu Chongba watched the bonfire on the city wall all night, and then helplessly ordered the troops who had also waited all night to go back and rest.
The same thing happened the next day. But when the Lulong Army's security troops evacuated in the evening, Liu Chongba was awakened from his sleep by his subordinates. He quickly climbed to the top of the city and was surprised to see that a camp with tall fences and arrow towers was nearly completed. At this speed,
It shocked him.
On the third day, three camps were already standing in the east, north, and west directions of Yanci, about three miles away from the city. Liu Chongba and his men looked at the Lu Longjun camp from a distance, and they were all speechless.
Can look at each other, and then continue to look at each other.
Another day later, I saw the Lulong Army in the north of the city sending out a large group of sergeants and civilian men to start working outside the military stronghold. Thousands of people were shouting slogans and digging the ground non-stop. Some people shuttled among them, pushing carts back and forth, and also
A few people lie on the ground from time to time, and then get up quickly...
"What are they doing?" The generals asked each other, but no one knew the answer.
Liu Chongba was also very confused, but although he could not figure out the real intention of Lu Longjun, he speculated that the opponent's main attack direction should be the north gate. So Liu Chongba immediately made defensive adjustments, starting from the east and west.
Five hundred people were removed from each city wall, and a defensive force of 2,000 people was gathered on the north wall. There were 500 people on the top of the city and 1,500 people below the city. Based on Liu Chongba's combat experience, such a force was enough to withstand
Ten days and a half month is not a problem.
One day later, the working place of these sergeants and civilian laborers was already close to a mile away from Yanci City. Only then did Liu Chongba and his generals discover that the Lulong Army had built three wide strips among the rough land and bushes.
After the road was repaired to a distance of 400 steps below the city, it did not continue to extend forward, but was instead repaired horizontally, parallel to the city wall.
Seeing thousands of people building roads under the city, the defenders in Yanci looked funny. Suddenly, someone burst out laughing, and then there was a roar of ridicule on top of the city. After spending so much time,
With great efforts, the road was smoothed? Is Lu Longjun stupid? What on earth were they thinking?
After laughing, some generals took the initiative to ask for a fight and wanted to attack the city, but Liu Chongba looked at the heavily guarded cavalry and resisted the idea.
When Lulong's army finally began to attack the city, the defenders at the top of Yanci City finally stopped laughing.
The Lulong Army Brigade drove out of the camp and arrived at Yanci City to form a formation. They rolled out a large number of siege equipment from the camp and quickly arrived at the city along the three well-prepared roads, and then spread out along the horizontal roads.
In less than half an hour, more than a dozen large trebuchets, a long row of ramming cones, eight huge ladders, and dozens of locomotives and earth-moving vehicles were lined up in sequence to form a tight array. Such large equipment laid out
The shock and impact the array brought to people was extremely strong, and Liu Chongba suddenly became a little distracted.
He looked at the dense Lulong Army siege equipment, and subconsciously looked at the small city behind him, and finally confirmed that he was indeed defending Yanci, not Chang'an or Luoyang.
Only at this moment did Liu Chongba understand why Lu Longjun wanted to repair the road, because they had too many siege equipment, and they were too big!
Especially those trebuchets, with towering long arms, and the highest point was even higher than the city head! Liu Chongba had seen trebuchets, but he had never seen so many trebuchets gathered together, and Liu Chongba even suspected that Lu Longjun had brought them
With so many trebuchets, how many people do they need to control them?
The Xuanwu Army also had trebuchets, but they could only attack a city with only five or six at most, because operating the trebuchet required a lot of manpower. The tip arm of the trebuchet was mounted on a wooden frame, and one end was tied with a rope to accommodate the stone bullets.
The other end of the leather sheath is tied with many ropes for manpower to pull and throw the stone bullets. The stone bullets are thrown out by pulling the tips connected to the crossbar at a distance away from the catapult. 50 strong men are needed.
Pull the rope together to release. Because there are many people operating it, special organization and skills are required. Most people cannot cooperate well, so controlling the trebuchet is a high-tech job, and those who can do this job are talents.
Liu Chongba took a closer look at these trebuchets, and they seemed to be very different from those he had seen. The bases of these trebuchets were rectangular, and there were many wooden wheels installed underneath. When he saw the wooden wheels, Liu Chongba suddenly realized,
No wonder the Lulong Army was able to quickly push such a big guy to the city. No wonder the Lulong Army wanted to build roads!
However, the distance between these trebuchets seems to be a little far. The distance of 400 steps cannot hit the city wall anyway. The attack distance of the Xuanwu Army trebuchets that Liu Chongba has seen are all within the range of 300 steps, and they are accurate.
It’s not very good, and the machinery is easy to break. When the defenders encounter a trebuchet, they usually rely on city crossbows to fight back. When dozens of people controlling the trebuchet pull the rope, they release a city crossbow at the dense crowd, which often
Can disrupt the enemy's intentions.
Several crossbows were also placed on the top of Yanci's city, but they could not reach as far as 400 steps, so Liu Chongba doubted whether these trebuchets could be used.
Looking away from the trebuchet, Liu Chongba looked at the eight ladders - these were the greatest threat to the city wall. He immediately ordered his subordinates to prepare strong fire oil, and at the same time personally inspected several shooting poles erected on the city wall.
This is to ensure that when the enemy uses the ladder, we can do our best to interfere with it.
As for the door-rushing cone carts and pilot trains, there are also rolling logs and stones prepared in Yanci City, but first they need to wait until the Lulong Army can cross the moat. Yanci is right next to the Yellow River, and the moat diverts water from the Yellow River. If you want to attack the city directly,
The moat had to be filled in, and a lot of troops were usually consumed in the process. Liu Chongba had hundreds of archery masters under his command, and he hoped to save at least a thousand Lu Long Army lives in this process.
Of course, in the end, the problem must be solved by the fighting of the sergeants. Looking at his fierce men, Liu Chongba regained his passion for fighting and his confidence in victory. (To be continued.)