Chapter 2227: Breaking through Xiaoguan and going straight to Chang'an
Chapter 2227: Break through Xiao Pass and go straight to Chang'an
Wei Qing led 30,000 cavalry and launched a surprise attack on the Sui Kingdom from the west. At the same time, Huo Qubing's 40,000 cavalry also arrived at Xiaoguan.
Due to the division of troops and Wei Qing's taking the lead in attacking the Sui Dynasty, Huo Qubing's troops were exposed in advance.
When he learned that the Qin army suddenly attacked and was only dozens of miles away from Xiaoguan, guard Li Cunxu was shocked.
Now there are only 5,000 defenders in the pass, and there is no defense in advance. Even if the defense is deployed immediately, it is too late.
Li Cunxu knew that with the power of Xiaoguan, he could not resist the wolf-like Qin army for long. Once Xiaoguan fell, the entire western part of Guanzhong would be under the threat of the Qin army, and the Qin army could even march forward to attack.
Arrive at the foot of Chang'an City.
Realizing the seriousness of the problem, Li Cunxu commanded the defenders to deploy all their defenses and buy as much time as possible. At the same time, he asked Chang'an for reinforcements, hoping that reinforcements from the Tang Army could arrive as soon as possible, otherwise the fall of Xiaoguan would be just a matter of time.
After Li Shimin learned the news about Xiao Guan, he deeply regretted his decision to mobilize troops from Xiao Guan, but it was too late to say anything now.
The importance of Xiao Pass is the same as that of Tongguan and Aoguan. Once Xiaoguan is dedicated, it will be useless for the Tang army to defend Tongguan and Aoguan. Therefore, for the Tang State now, nothing is more important than protecting Xiaoguan.
Li Shimin mobilized the army as soon as possible and sent reinforcements to Xiaoguan. However, before the reinforcements set off, the offensive and defensive battle at Xiaoguan had already begun.
Huo Qubing arrived too quickly, much earlier than Li Cunxu expected. Even before the defense of Xiaoguan Tower had been adjusted, the Qin army had already launched an attack on the city.
This time the Qin army was attacking over a long distance, so they did not have large siege equipment such as catapults. They only had ladders, simple wells and other equipment used to attack the city.
Faced with such siege equipment, it was naturally difficult to capture Xiaoguan, but this time the Qin army made a mental calculation and unintentionally caught the enemy by surprise.
When the Tang army in Xiaoguan learned that the Qin army was attacking, basically everyone was in a state of confusion. They couldn't believe that Xiaoguan, as the rear area, would be attacked by the Qin army. Is there any safe place in the Tang state?
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After the reaction, the Qin army had already attacked the city, and the offensive was extremely fierce. Not only did the three war gods Gongsun Xuanyuan, Jintai, Long Qie, etc., but also the general Huo Qubing personally participate in the siege, so that the Tang army was defeated as soon as they fought.
I was immediately fooled.
After all, Li Cunxu was the commander-in-chief of the 96th Army. Seeing that his defenders were being beaten and retreating, he quickly mobilized stones and crossbows to gather fire among the Qin generals.
Although this move restricted senior generals such as Gongsun Xuanyuan, it also greatly dispersed the firepower of the Tang army, giving the mid-level and low-level Zeng Qin troops an opportunity to take advantage of it, and also allowed a large number of soldiers to board the tower.
When Li Cunxu saw a large number of Qin soldiers ascending the tower, he decisively led his guards to stop them. He wanted to strangle all the Qin soldiers who boarded the tower. However, after killing most of the Qin soldiers, Huo Qubing and Meng Yi climbed onto the tower one after another.
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Seeing Huo Qubing coming up, Li Cunxu was overjoyed. He quickly led his men to surround and kill Huo Qubing. He wanted to kill Huo Qubing on the tower. The Qin army would surely retreat if they lost their leader. However, he was stopped by Meng Yi on the way.
After Li Cunxu exchanged several moves with Meng Yi, he found that Meng Yi was helpless in a short period of time. On the other hand, Li Cunzhang and Li Cunshen teamed up to face Huo Qubing.
Li Cunxu fought against Meng Yi for fifteen rounds. Not only did he not gain the upper hand, but he was completely suppressed. Just when he secretly knew something was wrong and was about to retreat, he discovered that Li Cunzhang and Li Cunshen had been killed by Huo Qubing.
Li Cunxu was immediately shocked, and the connection of his moves stagnated. He was stabbed in the throat by Meng Yi, and died on the spot, and then his head was cut off.
Seeing Li Cunxu's death at the hands of Meng Yi, the morale of the Tang army plummeted and began to collapse. No matter how much deputy general Li Cunxian shouted, he was unable to turn the tide.
Immediately afterwards, Gongsun Xuanyuan and other generals boarded the tower, and Li Cunxian was killed by Huo Qubing with two shots. The Tang army had no place to resist, and the Qin army took advantage of the situation and completely occupied Xiaoguan.
It only took three hours from the attack on the city to the breakthrough of the pass. The Tang army did not even have time to hold on for a day before Huo Qubing captured Xiao Pass.
After the war, statistics showed that the Qin army suffered 2,000 casualties, 2,000 Tang soldiers were killed, and 1,000 were captured.
The remaining two thousand defenders escaped from Xiaoguan and were chased by Long Qie's cavalry. With no way to escape, they finally chose to surrender.
For Huo Qubing, the biggest benefit of capturing Xiao Pass was not the opening of the north gate of Guanzhong, but the 100,000 stones of grain and grass stored in the pass.
This batch of grain and grass was prepared by the Tang army to defend against the Sui army. Both Li Cunxu and Li Cunxian died in the battle, so they did not have time to burn it down, thus giving an advantage to the enemy Huo Qubing.
This time, Huo Qubing's army traveled lightly and simply, marching for more than three thousand miles, and the food and grass he brought with him was almost exhausted.
Even before the war began, Huo Qubing was prepared to support the war with war, and even to forcibly collect food from the people.
As the ninth largest granary in Guanzhong, there must be surplus food left in the people's homes. As long as they invade Guanzhong, the Qin army will be able to collect food on the spot, and there will definitely be no shortage of food and grass.
As for whether the people in Guanzhong are willing? Huo Qubing has nothing to do with it. If the national war starts, he will not care about the wishes of the people at the bottom, let alone the people of the enemy country.
Food shortages are common during long-distance raids. This is not the first time Huo Qubing has done this to forcefully seize food from the enemy's people. The only difference is that in the past, he took it from the hands of the foreign people, but now he has to take it from the hands of the Han people.
Rob.
For the safety of his soldiers, Huo Qubing didn't mind bearing the infamy. At worst, he would compensate the people after the war, whether it was money and food or exemption from taxes.
Huo Qubing was prepared to bear the infamy, but he didn't want to send hundreds of thousands of stones of food and grass from the sky to help him conquer Guanzhong.
Now that there are 100,000 stones of grain and grass in Xiaoguan, Huo Qubing naturally does not need to forcibly requisition grain from the people, and the people in Guanzhong have temporarily escaped disaster.
Huo Qubing, who had conquered Xiaoguan and obtained a large amount of grain and grass, did not stay at Xiaoguan for a long time, but immediately set off to prepare for a direct attack on Chang'an.
Huo Qubing ordered Long Qie to lead 5,000 troops to guard Xiaoguan. He led Jintai, Gongsun Xuanyuan, Meng Yi, Li Jin, Yue Xi and other generals, leading 34,000 cavalry, to leave Xiaoguan in the east and march towards Chang'an at full speed.
After leaving Xiaoguan, Huo Qubing's troops marched for only half a day when they encountered 40,000 Tang army reinforcements.
The chief general of the Tang Army was Li Shimin's brother-in-law Changsun Wuji. In addition, there were generals such as Gao Siji, Gao Xingzhou, Shi Jingtang, Zhang Xiu, Xu Rong, etc. It can be said that strong generals gathered together elite soldiers, and they were definitely an elite division.