The 100,000 puppet Qi army stretched for more than 20 miles and entered the Weishui River Valley in a mighty manner. They took the south bank. The north bank was lined with strange rocks and lush forests. There were no official roads and only pedestrian paths.
There is a flat gap several miles wide on the south bank, and the official road passes through it. However, the Weishui Military City has been built here, blocking the entrance of the Wei River Valley.
He originally thought there would be a fierce battle, but to Li Cheng's surprise, the Weishui Military City turned out to be an empty city, and all the Song troops retreated.
Yao Bing was a little worried and said: "General, the Song army abandoned the Weishui military city to recapture it and cut off our retreat."
Li Cheng smiled slightly and said: "If it were me, I would also retreat the defenders. Facing a hundred thousand troops, this military city cannot be defended. The soldiers inside will only die in vain. As for the other party who wants to cut off our retreat, I think
It’s wonderful to get it, but it’s not easy to do it!”
Li Cheng immediately ordered: "Where is General Wang Long!"
A commander stepped forward, clasped his fists and said, "This is my humble duty!"
Li Cheng pointed his horse whip at the Weishui Army City and said, "I'll give you three thousand men to defend the Weishui City!"
"I humbly obey my orders!"
Li Cheng then told him: "Thoroughly inspect the inside and outside of the city. There must be no secret passages left by the Song army to prevent the Song army from sneak attacks and seizing the city!"
"You must search carefully if you are a humble official!"
Li Cheng nodded, waved his riding whip, and ordered: "The army continues to advance westward!"
Three thousand cavalry acted as the vanguard, exploring the road ahead, while a hundred thousand troops and countless large carriages came towards Chengji County in a mighty manner.
........
At this time, Chengji County was completely ready. Not only did the people within thirty miles of the surrounding area move into the city, but all the warehouse materials outside the city were also transported into the city. The amount of grain in Chengji County alone exceeded one million dan, and various
Supplies piled up like mountains, pig iron, copper ingots, silver nuggets, armor, bows, arrows, kerosene, gunpowder, etc. have all reached the limit of the warehouse.
In addition, Chen Qing also transferred soldiers from various places, transferring inexperienced recruits to garrison in various places, and transferred veterans with rich combat experience back to Chengji County.
The total force in Chengji County has reached 50,000, with more than 30 heavy trebuchets of various types, more than 100 medium trebuchets, and five thousand-step artillery, which are super trebuchets with a projection distance of more than 500 steps.
machine.
Not only does it have strong military strength and abundant war supplies, but it also has unprecedented internal and external walls, making the entire city's defenses impregnable.
Chen Qing stood on the south wall of the outer city, looking at the overwhelming Puppet Qi Army several miles away. He coldly said to the generals: "This is the source of troops sent to us by the Puppet Qi Army. After this battle, we will completely
Rise up, no one can control our destiny anymore, this is God’s arrangement, I hope you will fight together with me!”
Hundreds of generals bowed together and said: "I am willing to serve the capital!"
Chen Qing said again: "Send the order and Liu Qiong can wait for the opportunity to take action!"
.........
One hundred thousand puppet Qi troops began to camp in the south. The terrain of Chengji County is different from other counties. It is located between Ji River and Wei River. Ji River flows into the Wei River from two miles east of the city.
It is actually located in a triangle zone. The Ji River in the east is open and the puppet Qi army cannot attack from the east. To the north is the Weishui River, which is two miles away, and the battlefield cannot be opened.
The west is open, but compared to the west, the puppet Qi army is more willing to attack from the equally open south area, and is also willing to set up its main camp in the south.
While the puppet Qi army was building a camp five miles away, two thousand fortification soldiers quickly built a huge wooden platform in the wilderness about two miles away from Chengji County, which was actually an observation tower.
Li Cheng had just discovered that there was something wrong with his intelligence. The Art of War says, ‘Know yourself and the enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without danger!’ As a famous general of Qi State, Li Cheng also attached great importance to intelligence collection.
He had set up an intelligence point in Chengji County as early as last year. On the eve of his dispatch, he also received a message from the intelligence point. There were only more than 20,000 troops in Chengji County, and Chen Qing and the family members of important officials had already
They moved to Huangzhou, and there were 20,000 troops to escort them to Huangzhou.
This information was reasonable and convinced Li Cheng, but when he arrived in Chengji County, he unexpectedly found that the city had grown larger. He had always known that the circumference of Chengji County was twenty-five miles, but now it had become more than thirty miles, or even
Almost forty miles away.
This change was not mentioned in the intelligence, but Li Cheng knew the importance of the city's expansion, so he simply ordered the construction of a observation tower to see the truth for himself.
In just half a day, a huge eight-foot-high wooden platform was built. Li Cheng led a dozen generals onto the wooden platform and looked into the city from a distance.
The scene inside the city immediately surprised Li Cheng. Another city wall was built on the outskirts of Chengji County, and the two walls were connected by a cable bridge in the air.
In other words, the city wall in front of him was only the outer city wall. There was an equally tall and strong inner city wall inside.
Why didn't the intelligence point tell me such important information?
Also, didn't Yang Rui say that he was selected into the Jinglue Mansion Guards? Logically speaking, it should be easy for him to assassinate Chen Qing, but why is there no change at all in the city?
Various signs showed that his various deployments in Chengji County had encountered major setbacks, and Li Cheng began to suspect that the information he had received before was all false information, and that his intelligence station might have been controlled by Chen Qing.
"General Li, I'm afraid this battle won't be easy to fight!"
The speaker was the deputy general Guan Shigu. He was originally the deputy envoy of Xihe Road Economic Strategy, but was surrounded by Jin soldiers in Pingliang Mansion. He surrendered to the Jin soldiers with conditions, and the Jin soldiers released more than 10,000 of his men, but this time
More than ten thousand soldiers became Chen Qing's subordinates, forming the backbone of Chen Qing's army today.
Guan Shigu became a general of Qi again and was highly valued by Liu Yu. He was appointed as the economic envoy of Henan Prefecture and garrisoned in Luoyang. This time it was his army that was transferred to Guanzhong. Wan Yanchang appointed him as deputy general to participate in the attack.
Xihe Road.
Guan Shigu was a famous general in the Western Army with rich experience. He could see the defense deployment of Chengji County at a glance.
Li Cheng glanced at him and said calmly: "General Guan is rich in experience. He might as well comment on the defense of Chengji County."
Guan Shigu was not polite and said frankly: "This is no longer a simple defense, but a combination of offense and defense. When we attack the inner city, we are likely to fall into it and be blocked in the sandwich city."
Li Cheng nodded. Guan Shigu was indeed right. He asked again: "How many troops does General Guan think the other side should have?"
Guan Shigu was surprised and said: "General Li is launching a massive attack on Chengji County. Doesn't he even know how many enemy troops there are?"
Li Cheng blushed and quickly explained: "I have deployed spies in Chengji County. As far as I know, the number of Song troops should be just over 20,000."
"Does the general think that 20,000 people can defend such a large inner and outer city?"
Guan Shigu said with a sarcastic face: "The general's intelligence spies may have been too busy doing business and forgot about their duties, just making up numbers to do their job."
Li Cheng was not angry. He sighed and said: "I suspect that they were taken over by the Song Army, and then they were instigated by the Song Army to rebel. They sent me false information. Otherwise, I would not know anything about the construction of the inner and outer city walls by the Song Army."
Guan Shigu also put away the sarcasm on his face. He pondered for a while and said: "Chen Qing is very good at defense. When he builds an internal and external city wall, he will definitely equip a corresponding number of troops, and there will be no top-heavy situation. I guess he
The number of troops in the city should be about 50,000, so I say that this battle is not easy to fight. Even if we partially attack the city and the army enters, I am afraid that the entire army will be destroyed."
"General Guan is right, but we have come to this point and can no longer retreat. We can only make up our minds to fight this battle. Besides, the opponent's city defense is not without weaknesses."
"Oh? Where is the weakness that the general sees?"
"The moat, their moat is the water. When our fleet transporting supplies arrives today, our fleet will sail directly into the moat and use strong bows, crossbows and fire oil balls to cover the attacking soldiers!"
"But warships will also be attacked by enemy gunfire."
Li Cheng said lightly: "I know that losses are inevitable, but even if there are losses, they can still cover the soldiers' siege. Maybe this is its destiny!"