As soon as Li Shimin said this, everyone present was in an uproar.
"General, no, once we withdraw from the city wall, even if we close all the city gates, the North City still cannot be defended."
"Yes, General, we can't withdraw, otherwise the blood of our brothers will be shed in vain."
"..."
Everyone kept trying to dissuade Li Shimin. Of course, this was reasonable.
Closing the already opened city gate is to prevent the coalition forces outside the city from continuing to send troops into the city.
And if the defenders on the city wall are withdrawn, even if the city gate is closed, the coalition forces can still transport troops through the ladder.
The entire section of the city wall at the north gate is such a spacious area. If there is no defender to stop it, troops can be transported faster than the city gate.
Therefore, withdrawing the defenders of the city wall is actually equivalent to giving up the north gate.
The Liang army was already at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. If they lost the protection of the city wall, not to mention the North Gate, even the entire Luoyang would fall quickly.
Generally, in a city defense battle, if the city gate is opened, the battle is basically over.
But Liang Jun is different.
The city gate was opened from the inside, but the Liang army did not lose the north gate and still fought hard to defend Luoyang.
But now, the city wall must be lost and forced to abandon Luoyang. Naturally, most of the Liang army cannot accept it!
Li Shimin knew what everyone was thinking, so he sighed and explained: "Don't worry, I don't want to abandon the North Gate. It's just that the morale of the coalition forces is now strong. There are 20,000 defenders in the North City, plus the 30,000 reinforcements that have arrived, five
Even after ten thousand troops fought desperately, they failed to drive away the coalition forces.
Therefore, it is better to avoid its sharp edge for the time being, wait for its morale to weaken a little, and then concentrate on retaking the North Gate."
The troops of the remaining three sects cannot be mobilized easily, and the Liang army only has 50,000 fresh troops, of which more than 10,000 have died in the battle. Of course, the casualties of the coalition forces are naturally greater.
There are now only less than 40,000 of the 50,000-strong army left, and if this endless consumption continues, even if the North Gate is recaptured, it will still be impossible to hold it!
Therefore, it's not that Li Shimin didn't dare to confront Qin Hao, but that the Liang army really couldn't afford to fight. The casualties of the coalition forces were borne by all the princes, so Qin Hao naturally didn't care.
With that said, Li Shimin turned to Yang Jian and said: "General Yang Jian, please immediately lead people to clear an isolation zone between the city wall and the civilian area as soon as possible, and prepare plenty of kerosene, sulfur and other materials.
After all the troops on the city wall were withdrawn, a wall of fire was immediately set up to prevent the coalition forces from directly attacking the city.
It will be dark in an hour or two, and darkness is not conducive to siege. Only after dark can we hope to recapture the north gate."
Yang Jian was stunned when he heard this. He obviously didn't expect that Li Shimin would take advantage of the opportunity, but currently this is the only way to make up for the lack of military strength.
"promise."
Yang Jian clasped his fists and said solemnly, but then asked: "But general, once the fire wall is set up, Yuanba will be separated from us, how can he come back?"
Li Shimin raised his hands and said confidently: "Don't worry about this. Yuanba's body is extremely strong, and ordinary swords can hardly hurt him. In addition, he has reached the master level and can release his inner energy.
If he were to protect his body, it would be impossible for a wall of fire not to hurt him."
What Li Shimin said is true. With Li Yuanba's inhuman physique, even if he didn't use his internal energy to protect his body, he wouldn't be able to burn to death in a short time, and this time would be enough for him to pass through the wall of fire.
And at this moment another spy came to report.
"Report... There has been a major change in the ghost street. The disciples of hundreds of schools except the Daoza family have used some means to detoxify the poison and escape imprisonment. Their whereabouts are now missing."
"What? How could this happen?"
Li Shimin said with a look of shock and anger, and his heart became increasingly uneasy.
Li Shimin knew that there must be people from the coalition forces among the hundreds of families, so he was on guard against these disciples from the beginning. If they did nothing, they would be extremely passive, so he simply killed them all and turned passivity into initiative!
Li Shimin thought that he paid enough attention to the disciples of the Bai Jia, but he did not expect that they could escape silently under his nose. Li Shimin could only lament that the background of the Bai Jia was really unfathomable.
The flight of hundreds of disciples is actually nothing, but it means that a bigger conspiracy in Luoyang will also be revealed. Otherwise, why would they flee with a guilty conscience?
Every time he thought about this, Li Shimin became more and more uneasy, and finally decided: "General Yang Jian, there may be something unexpected happening in the city. I am going back to the city to scare Xiao Xiao, so I will leave the north gate to you."
"General, don't worry, I will definitely protect the North City."
Li Shimin nodded, and then quickly led the people back, but on the way back, the uneasiness in his heart became stronger.
Boom...fires soaring into the sky ignited, dyeing the sky in Beicheng red.
Li Shimin turned around and saw that Yang Jian had set the fire. He fell into deep thought while looking at the fire, but woke up suddenly after a few seconds.
"fire?"
Li Shimin's eyes widened, and a bad guess appeared in his mind, and he immediately shouted: "No, please quickly send an order to Li Xiuning to immediately send more people to strictly guard the grain depot to prevent military spies from attacking."
"promise."
After the order was issued, Li Shimin was still worried and immediately prepared to go to the grain depot in person to take charge.
Outside the city, Qin Hao looked at the fire in the city and couldn't help but smile: "Li Shimin is really resourceful in using this method to stop the enemy."
"Report...to the leader of the alliance, after the enemy troops on the city wall retreated, our army wanted to take advantage of the victory and pursue them, but the Liang army lit a fire at the north gate. The fire prevented our army from attacking in the short term."
"That's all, if that's the case, let's postpone the attack on the north gate."
After saying this, Qin Hao couldn't help but look towards the tower and whispered to himself: "Li Shimin, I'll take this small fire of yours. I'll accept the big fire that I've carefully prepared for you. I don't know if you can take it."
Where’s next?”
On the north gate tower, Li Cunxiao and Li Yuanba were still fighting, and the firelight made the battle even more legendary.
Seeing this, Qin Hao's eyes were full of brilliance, and he said softly: "The side that wins this battle will definitely be the best in the world for more than ten years!"
As soon as Qin Hao finished speaking, he saw the inner city of Luoyang, where the Liang Army's grain depot was located, actually bursting into flames.
Grain and grass are flammable, and the fire quickly became difficult to control. The momentum was even greater than the wall of fire at the north gate.
"There's a fire in the grain depot, hurry up and put out the fire!"
"Water, bring the water quickly!"
On the roof of a building across the street from the grain warehouse, a group of black-clad swordsmen were watching with cold eyes as the guards put out the fire in a messy manner, but they could not stop the spread of the fire at all.