The so-called Jingxiang refers to Xiangyang, and the other refers to Jingzhou, which is Jiangling City. Jiangling City is the second largest city in Jingxiang. The city has a circumference of nearly forty miles. The city walls are wide, thick and tall, and six war horses can run side by side on the city head.
, the city wall is three feet high and extremely strong.
Jiangling City is about two miles away from the Yangtze River. In addition to a straight official road leading directly to the dock, there is also Jingshui flowing through the city and flowing into the Yangtze River.
At this time, the defense of Jiangling City was in chaos. Chai Shao issued a large number of orders in one day, making the officers adapt to them. Just like a person with leisurely habits who suddenly got a lot of work, he was at a loss at first, and then
It's a mindless rush.
The generals are all mobilizing troops and arranging their own defense zones, especially when it comes to competing for civilians. Dozens of generals are quarreling red-faced. Everyone understands that the more civilians in their hands, the greater the oil and water in the middle.
If you want your own children to return home, you can pay money to redeem them. This is the way to make money, and every officer knows it well.[
After all, Chai Shao was a high-ranking official and famous general in the Tang Dynasty. He showed courage at the critical moment. Each general assigned civilians according to the size of his own troops. This quickly calmed down the quarrels among the generals and began to deploy their own defenses.
The Tang army had a total of 70,000 troops in Jiangling. Except for the 10,000 troops deployed on the pier as the first line of defense, all other troops were retracted back to the city. 60,000 troops were deployed on the four walls, and with the support of 50,000 civilians, it was really
Jiangling City was built like a copper wall and an iron wall.
At dawn, Chai Shao appeared on the top of the city. He was in a good mood. Yesterday, during his visit, he actually raised 200,000 shi of grain. In addition to the 200,000 shi of grain stored in the official treasury, he had enough money in his hands.
The military rations at his disposal amounted to 400,000 dan, enough for him to hold on for a year.
Chai Shao's plan from the beginning was to defend, using Jiangling City's strong walls and sufficient troops to confront the Sui army, and buy Chang'an time. As long as it could persist for half a year, the Tang Dynasty could gradually recover and fight the Sui army again.
The dynasties compete for the world.
Before he set off from Chang'an, the Holy Emperor asked him this. Even if he won the battle of Jingxiang, he must delay the Sui army for as long as possible. Chai Shao also knew in his heart that the Sui army might not be able to delay it.
On the top of the city, soldiers of the Tang Army were nervously preparing for battle, preparing various weapons, and bundles of arrows were piled at their feet. Groups of civilians were being escorted by the soldiers, carrying rolling logs and stones to the top of the city.
Chai Shao greeted the soldiers kindly. He was particularly pleased with the high spirits of the soldiers. Morale was the most important thing. I heard that Li Mi's army had too low morale and was defeated by the Sui army in one battle. Yang Yuanqing was very good at psychological warfare.
At this moment, a soldier suddenly pointed to the river in the distance and shouted: "Look! The Sui army warship."
Everyone looked towards the river in the distance. Chai Shao also saw hundreds of large ships appearing on the river, their sails covering the sky and the sun. They sailed toward the north bank of the river in mighty force.
Chai Shao suddenly became nervous. He did not expect that the Sui army came so quickly. They destroyed the water stronghold yesterday morning, and today the main force of the Sui army came to kill them.
"Sound the alarm and order the entire army to prepare for war!" Chai Shao shouted loudly.
‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ The ear-splitting bell rang, resounding throughout the city. All the soldiers on the city head stood with their bows and arrows drawn, and they were extremely nervous.
Every household in the city closed its doors, and with their wives and children, they kowtowed and burned incense in front of their ancestors, begging them to protect the lives of their entire family.
The Sui army ships were getting closer and closer. Liu Fangzhi suggested in a low voice: "General, in fact, the Sui army only has fifty or sixty thousand troops at most. Either Du Fuwei's army or Xiao Xian's army are not good at fighting. Why don't we deploy troops out of the city."
Fight them."
Chai Shao shook his head, "It's not as weak as you think. There are still Sui cavalry. At least Wang Junkuo's five thousand cavalry are here. We can't defeat the cavalry and we will suffer a big loss."
At this time, Chai Shao looked at the 10,000 troops on the dock. What he was most worried about now was these 10,000 crossbowmen. Whether their fortifications had been completed... About fifty steps away from the dock, the Tang army packed sacks
They built a defensive wall about three or four miles long, parallel to the wharf, and about six feet high. Ten thousand Tang army crossbowmen hid behind the defensive wall, nervously watching the Sui army's ships approaching.
The reason why such a crossbow army was deployed on the pier was mainly to prevent Sui Army soldiers from disembarking. Since it was impossible for all Sui Army ships to dock at the pier, they could only dock in turns, so that at most six or seven large ships could dock at the same time at a time.
, more than 2,000 troops were unloaded from the ship at one time.
In this way, the Tang army's 10,000 crossbows were enough to use bows and arrows to prevent the Sui army soldiers from disembarking, which could produce great lethality and force the Sui army's warships to dock.
The north shore is different from the south shore. The water on the north shore is shallow. Only the three or four miles long section of the dock is deep water, which can support warships of more than 5,000 stone to dock. The other two sides, which stretch for more than a hundred miles, cannot allow Sui warships to dock.
, this natural condition created a fighting opportunity for the Tang army.[
As long as they block the dock area with strong bows and crossbows, it will be difficult for the Sui army to land.
The commanding general of the 10,000 Tang Army crossbowmen was named Li Changyuan. He was from the Li family in Hexi. He was six feet three tall, tall and burly, with big arms and round waist. He was highly skilled in martial arts and was skilled in bow and horse. He wielded an eighty-pound mountain-splitting axe.
He is a rare strong general under Chai Shao and serves as the sub-general.
Li Changyuan stared at the Sui army's approaching ships with cold eyes. Although he was not good at water warfare, he was good at commanding archers. He had already held his breath in his heart and wanted to give the Sui army a head-on attack.
Three Sui army warships have approached the pier one after another. They are all Wanshi warships. Each of their huge hill-like hulls is slowly approaching, less than thirty steps away from the pier.
Hundreds of soldiers suddenly appeared on the side of the ship. They raised their crossbows and fired at the Tang Army soldiers on the shore. A burst of crackling arrows hit the Tang Army crossbowmen who were hiding behind the defensive wall. The Tang Army soldiers were caught off guard. Dozens of soldiers
Screaming and falling to the ground after being hit by an arrow.
Li Changyuan was furious and waved his sword, "Fire the arrow!"
The sound of clappers sounded, and the soldiers of the Tang Army on the pier fired thousands of arrows at the ship like a storm. A dozen Sui soldiers were shot and overturned, and several people even fell from the ship.
The dense rain of arrows filled the ship walls, weighing down the Sui army soldiers so much that they could not lift their heads. Three large ships in a row slowly docked, but the soldiers could not get off the boats. The arrow rain formed by 10,000 Tang army crossbowmen effectively blocked the attack.
Sui soldiers landed.
The large ships behind them were all parked on the river. As long as the ships in front did not leave the dock, the ships behind them could not dock. The Sui army seemed to have a bad start and encountered a big problem.
On the fifth large ship, Yang Yuanqing stood on the bow with his hands behind his hands, looking coldly at the interception of the Tang Army's crossbow troops on the shore. Yesterday afternoon, his scouts had clearly told him that the Tang Army's soldiers were building fortifications, so
Tang Army archers appeared on the shore as he expected.
In fact, Chai Shao didn't think enough about the problem. He only thought of deploying an archer to intercept him from docking. If he were Yang Yuanqing, he would pile up the burned shipwrecks in the dock water, or carry huge rocks and throw them into the water. His sea
Ships could not dock at all, and there were not many Qianshi River boats in the army that could dock at will, so transporting troops across the river became a problem.
It can only be said that Chai Shao's experience is not rich enough, and the experienced local generals seem unwilling to remind him. From this point, Yang Yuanqing felt that the Tang army did not seem to be very united, and the local generals might have had ideas.
.
In this way, Yang Yuanqing looked eastward, his eyes full of expectation...
On the top of the city, Chai Shao was extremely excited. He did not expect that the 10,000 Tang troops deployed would play such a big role in forcing the Sui army's warships to dock.
The deputy general Liu Fangzhi next to him moved his lips, as if he wanted to remind him of something, but finally held back. He was a local and knew all kinds of large ships well. The Sui army came here by sea. Although there was no problem sailing in the Yangtze River, he wanted to
There will be big problems when docking on the north bank of Gangneung.
"What does General Liu want to say?" Chai Shao noticed Liu Fangzhi's hesitation and asked with some displeasure.
Liu Fangzhi pointed to Jingshui a few miles away to the west and said: "General, if the Sui army's warships attack from Jingshui, it will be a troublesome matter."
One sentence reminded Chai Shao that if the Sui army's warship approached the city wall from Jingshui, wouldn't it be possible to board the city directly from the warship?
What should we do? Chai Shao suddenly broke out in cold sweat on his forehead, but he couldn't think of a solution for the moment.
Liu Fangzhi reminded him again: "You can use kerosene to flow along the waterway. As long as the Sui army's warships approach, you can light the ships and burn them."
Chai Shao nodded. This was a good idea. When they attacked Jingxiang, they brought a large amount of kerosene from Bashu and stored it in Jiangling City. They could just use it. Chai Shao immediately ordered: "Move half of the kerosene next to the water gate."
Waiting for orders."
At this moment, he suddenly heard a muffled thunder-like sound coming from the distance, as if the earth was shaking slightly. Chai Shao suddenly thought of something. He turned around and looked east, his face turned pale, and he saw Dong
An overwhelming amount of cavalry came in front of them, like a black tide, sweeping towards the dock.[
This is the five thousand cavalry led by Wang Junkuo. They crossed the river fifty miles away to the east at midnight last night and came all the way. They launched ten miles away from the city. The five thousand cavalry galloped with iron hoofs and murderous intent, like a sharp arrow flying fast.
Directly behind Tang Jun at the dock.
The crossbowmen of the Tang Army at the pier were in chaos. Without waiting for the general's order, they turned around and ran towards the city. Li Changyuan shouted loudly: "Hold on! Hold on! Line up to attack."
However, the Tang army was already in a state of confusion. People listened to his command, and the Sui army's cavalry galloped like flying. They rushed to the dock in an instant. Even if they could organize a defense, it was already too late.
Hundreds of soldiers of the Tang Army could not outrun the horses of the Sui Army's cavalry, and were instantly swallowed up by the rolling cavalry. The Sui Army's cavalry pulled out a long dividing line, cutting off the Tang Army's crossbowmen's escape. Either they had to fight to the death with the Sui Army's cavalry, or
Surrender and find another way.
At this time Wang Junkuo saw the enemy general and shouted, "Axe-thief, give me your life!"
With a wave of the Qinglong Yanyue Sword, the war horse rushed towards Li Changyuan. At this time, Li Changyuan had no way to go. He roared, the war horse rushed out, swung the big ax, and struck the head with the axe, with the power of tearing open a mountain, towards Wang Junkuo's neck.