Chapter 1904: Qin Qing defeated Qi Wei Qing in battle
After Xue Rengui, Lu Bu also advised: "Commander Su, General Xue is right. If we continue to attack with force, we don't know how many lives will be lost. Even if we can capture Yanjing City by then, my lord's side may not be in good shape."
Explain."
Sun Lingming also nodded in agreement. In the past ten days, he has fully experienced what madness is and what a flesh and blood mill is.
When he was defeated by Li Ling in Kuangping, he only lost 2,000 soldiers. Now he has lost a full 20,000 soldiers in the attack on Yanjing City, which is equivalent to the loss of ten Kuangping defeats, and he still has not been able to defeat Yanjing.
Beat it down.
Sun Lingming has never been a soft-hearted person, but such a large number of casualties still shocked him. If possible, he naturally hopes that fewer people will die.
Seeing that Sun Lingming on his side agreed to postpone the offensive, Su Lie knew that it would be impossible without an explanation, so after scanning the crowd, he said, "Do you think I am willing to attack by force?"
A trace of doubt flashed in the eyes of Lu Bu, Sun Lingming and other generals. Since you said you were unwilling, why do you still need to attack?
A flash of light flashed in Xue Rengui's eyes, and he quickly asked: "Is there something unexpected happening in You Beiping?"
Su Dingfang nodded. Xue Rengui is probably the only person who can guess his thoughts now.
"On the day before the moat was to be filled in, a message was sent from flying pigeons in Youbeiping. The 50,000-eighth banner army behind the Manchu Qing Dynasty had reached western Liaoning. Qing Emperor Nurhaci personally led an army of 320,000 troops to invade Youbeiping.
An army of 140,000 met us."
With that said, Su Dingfang took out the original copy of the communication from a fallen document, handed it to everyone for circulation, and said: "The strength of the Qing army is more than twice that of our army. Although the soldiers of our Qin army are good at fighting, they also have two fists."
It’s hard to beat four hands.”
After Xue Rengui read it, he handed the original document to the next person, looked at Su Dingfang and said: "That's why, Commander Su, you ordered a strong attack just to capture Yanjing so that you can rush to the reinforcements of the Fifth Army as soon as possible?"
"That's right."
Su Dingfang nodded and said in a deep voice: "The battle situation in Youbeiping is not optimistic. Our army is under great pressure. Once the Fifth Route Army is defeated, everything will be over.
Everyone, we must capture Yanjing as soon as possible."
After hearing this, the generals understood.
Didn't Su Dingfang not know that a storm would cause more casualties? He knew better than anyone else, but with the threat of the Qing Dynasty ahead, the Qin army had to make a choice.
Is it to capture Yanjing regardless of casualties in order to rush to the aid of Beiping?
Or should we fight steadily, minimize casualties, and ignore the danger of the 130,000-strong army on the fifth route?
No matter which one is chosen, it means that the other side will definitely pay huge casualties, and Su Dingfang undoubtedly chose the former.
In Su Dingfang's view, the Northern Han Dynasty was already a turtle in a urn and could no longer pose a threat to the Qin army. However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was different. The 320,000-strong army was ready to attack. This force was enough to threaten the Qin army.
Therefore, even if they pay the price of labor pains, as long as they can destroy the Northern Han Dynasty and ensure that there is no threat from the rear, they can concentrate on dealing with the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Strategically, it will definitely be a sure gain for the Qin army.
But if Su Dingfang was concerned about the casualties and fought steadily, if the 140,000 troops in Youbeiping suffered too many casualties and the entire army was finally defeated, the loss would not be 10,000 or 20,000 elite soldiers, but hundreds of thousands.
Which one is lighter and which one is more important is clear at a glance.
After hearing Su Dingfang's explanation, the generals understood the seriousness of the problem and naturally stopped blocking the attack.
However, after ten consecutive days of strong attacks, the entire army was reduced by two-sevenths. The Qin army was indeed very tired now and needed to repair itself before it could exert stronger combat power.
In order to allow the army to exert stronger combat power, Su Dingfang ordered the army to recuperate for two days before continuing to attack the city.
The Qin army repaired for two days. Although it gave the Han army a chance to breathe, it also allowed its own combat power to be restored, and what followed was a more fierce offensive.
Under the Qin Army's offensive that failed to sustain casualties, Yanjing's defensive power dropped a lot, and although the Qin Army's offensive power also dropped, it was not by much and remained close to its peak level.
The Han army suffered a big defeat, while the Qin army suffered a small defeat. It was still quite a trade-off, and the gap in combat power between the two sides became even wider.
Therefore, in the subsequent siege battle, the casualty ratio between the Qin and Han sides was further expanded, even reaching the level of 1:3 or even 1:4.
One person died on the attacking side, but three, four, or even five or six on the defending side died.
This is definitely not a normal ratio, but the Han army has no reserve troops, so the people can only fill it with their lives.
Facing the Qin army, which was armed to the teeth, the common people were like lambs. Six of them could fight off one Qin army. This was all due to Xue Gang's good command.
The city of Yanjing has reached its most critical moment, but the situation that Xue Gang least wanted to see happened.
Facing the strong attack of the Qin army, the Han army was unable to resist and had no choice but to let the people take their lives. If this continues, Yanjing will turn into a dead city.
However, due to Su Dingfang's plan and the large number of casualties among the recruited men, the support of the people was greatly reduced, and they were even more afraid of the Qin army. If the people were allowed to die, it would probably trigger a civil uprising.
Just when Liu Che and Xue Gang were in a dilemma, a piece of news that made them even more desperate came: Wei Qing of Zhuojun was defeated.
After Huo Qubing led his army into Zhuo County, he and Bai Qi formed a pincer attack on Wei Qing. Wei Qing abandoned one county and tightened his defense line to resist the Qin army attacking from two sides.
Wei Qing only had 50,000 troops in his hands, but he had to face a pincer attack by 100,000 Qin troops, and the leaders were Bai Qi and Huo Qubing. It was difficult to deal with either one of them, let alone two of them together.
Wei Qing really tried his best. He defended Zhuo County for half a month, but he had to deal with Bai Qi and Huo Qubing at the same time. As time went by, flaws were finally exposed.
In just three days, more than ten battles broke out between the Qin and Han armies in the small Zhuo County. In the end, Wei Qing was defeated miserably by Bai Huo's coalition forces.
Of Wei Qing's 50,000-strong army, 10,000 were killed directly in battle, 30,000 were captured, and less than 10,000 were left to retreat to Zhuoxian to defend, while the total casualties of Bai and Huo's armies were less than 5,000.
After just one battle, Wei Qing's main force was lost, completely out of control, and could only survive in Zhuoxian County.
After Bai Qi and Huo Qubing's victory, they did not attack Zhuoxian by force, but carried out a siege.
Bai Qi led an army of 40,000 to surround Zhuoxian County to prevent Wei Qing from breaking out, but he asked Huo Qubing and Zhang Liang to lead an army of 55,000 to go north to support Su Dingfang in attacking Yanjing City.
After learning the news, Liu Che was shocked.
With Wei Qing's defeat, the Han Dynasty's last hope was gone, and it was only a matter of time before the country was destroyed.