Chapter 574: Absolutely Unable to Hold On
After much deliberation, Hubili decided to dispatch 50,000 troops to Daxing Prefecture to block the Shenwei Army's invasion from the Haihe River. He personally led the troops south to Daming Prefecture to fight a decisive battle with the Shenwei Army.
However, the battle situation changed rapidly and was no longer under his control.
Under the coordination of Cao Youwen and Meng Gong, the total strength of the Western Group of the Shenwei Army was close to 250,000. With such a large army dispatched, everyone from the king Cao Youwen to the generals wanted to get a piece of the pie, so they urged the deployment to advance quickly. The flags of the Shenwei Army were everywhere, making it difficult for him to defend against them.
After Shi Tianze collected the column numbers of the Shenwei Army in Xiangzhou, he secretly cried out that something was wrong. My goodness, there were eight columns coming up.
This guy immediately urged to repair the fortifications and strengthen the fortress. He still had a lucky thought that the walls of Xiangzhou City were strong and thick. The foundation of the city wall was five meters wide, which was enough to block the bombardment of the Shenwei Army.
Unexpectedly, after the Shenwei Army surrounded Xiangzhou, it immediately sent out the Tianjun to fiercely bomb the military camps and government offices in the city. The entire city was soon shrouded in smoke.
Liu Changan, the defeated general of Longde Prefecture, reported to him that the Heavenly Army of the Shenwei Army had bombed Longde Prefecture in this way for three consecutive days. The generals could only hide in civilian houses to escape the disaster.
However, once the army dispersed into civilian houses, their morale would be disrupted. The unscrupulous soldiers would then harm the common people and incite civil unrest, which would be tantamount to colluding with the Shenwei Army from both inside and outside, and the city would be breached in minutes.
But today, Lai Chuanfang did not give him time to hide in civilian houses. He directly used the Heavenly Army to clear out the guards on the city wall at the west gate, and designated a five-mile restricted area to launch a strong attack. The artillery of the Shenwei Army fired thousands of cannons under the guidance of hot air balloons, and the Shenwei Army, with the coordinated efforts of infantry and artillery, climbed up the city wall in minutes.
Shi Tianze was furious, waving his sword and ordering his men to rush through the barrage of interception fired by the Shenwei Army's artillery to reinforce the city. After an hour of bloody fighting, the two sides completely took over the west gate and cleared all the obstacles at the city gate.
The Shenwei Army rushed into the city and engaged in street fighting with the Mongolian Army. Once the city was breached, the defenders' morale was greatly weakened. Lai Chuanfang told them not to be stingy with gunpowder and to move the catapults and mortars to the top of the city walls and bombard them fiercely.
Shi Tianze was stunned. In a short period of time, he lost nearly 20,000 elite soldiers. The corpses were piled densely under the broken walls, and broken limbs filled the streets.
This guy had never seen an army with such powerful firearms, so he immediately ordered a retreat.
Fortunately, this guy had a plan in advance, and the team quickly escaped from the east gate and fled to Daming Prefecture while fighting. When he saw Tachaer, he said, "Prepare to retreat, we definitely can't hold on."
He told Tacaer: The sky was full of hot air balloons of the Divine Might Army, dozens or even hundreds of them flying over to carry out a blanket bombing. On the ground, they had hundreds or even thousands of catapults and countless mortars, all firing round after round. The shells fell like hail, and there was no way to avoid them.
Tachaer knew that the firearms of the Shenwei Army were powerful, but he did not expect that they would develop so rapidly. He said unwillingly that Prince Hu was on his way, so we should wait for him to arrive before making a decision.
Daming Prefecture is the gateway to southern Hebei. If we lose it, Prince Hu will have no choice but to lead us to hide in Liaodong.
It's freezing cold there.
Zhao Yulin followed Yang Xingyun into Xiangzhou. Cao Youwen and Meng Gong had already arrived. The three of them laughed as soon as they met. Cao Youwen was so happy that he started coughing violently. Meng Gong hurried over to support him and patted his back.
Zhao Yulin saw Cao Youwen's face flushed from coughing, and asked him with concern, "How is your health? If it doesn't work, just retreat to Kaifeng. It's fine as long as they are here."
Lao Cao smiled and said that he would follow his brothers to deal with Hubili Yilangtou. That guy had caused him a lot of trouble in Luoyang, and he must get revenge.
Zhao Yulin, however, believed that one should not pursue a desperate enemy. He said that we had captured so many prefectures and counties in one go, and we needed to further consolidate them. This battle was limited to taking over Zhending Prefecture, and it was not advisable to make further in-depth assaults.
Our fighting method is mainly based on infantry, and it would be very dangerous to fight too deep into enemy territory.
Lao Cao and he had both fought a battle on the grasslands of Linzhou, and the situation was too dangerous. Lao Cao immediately agreed with his point of view and instructed Lai Chuanfang to quickly adjust the deployment to annihilate the remaining enemies and formulate a combat plan with the goal of capturing Damingfu.
Zhao Yulin said: The enemy was beaten up by our all-out attack and their minds were confused. They didn't know how to organize a defense. If he were to lead the troops, they would have retreated in big strides. But Hubili would wake up soon. He had already ordered the navy to end the feint and retreat immediately.
Meng Gong gave him a thumbs up and said it was a good idea. The navy could just go deep into the enemy territory alone and mobilize the enemy.
He told Lai Chuanfang: Damingfu City has high walls and a wide city. The enemy will think it is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Why should we desperately climb the wall?
The entire city of Damingfu is built in a low-lying area. We can dig up the embankments of the two major rivers on the left and right, flooding Damingfu and making it impossible for Hubili to find a dry place to stay in the city.
All the generals suddenly realized and exclaimed that it was a great good idea.
He said: The enemy is not stupid, they will definitely try their best to escape when they know we are going to flood Damingfu. In this way, we can seize the opportunity to annihilate the enemy.
Meng Gong said with a smile: Then, Commander Zhao's flooding of Daming Prefecture was also a feint.
Zhao Yulin said: The more realistic you make it, the more afraid the enemy will be.
How to do it? It depends on the coach.
Lao Cao laughed and said that they would not move and would leave the rest to Chuanfang.
Zhao Yulin nodded and said to Lai Chuanfang: Give it a try, beat Hu Bili to a crippled state and drive him away.
Meng Gong invited them to go out and see the city. Xiangzhou, also known as Anyang, is the birthplace of Yin and Shang culture. Cao Mengde of the Three Kingdoms period also built the Bronze Sparrow Tower here. The three of them toured .
The smoke cleared, but the soldiers were still cleaning up.
Cao Youwen pointed at the dilapidated steel smelting workshop in the west of the city and said disdainfully: How can that blast furnace be compared with the fine steel workshop in Cuiping Mountain?
Zhao Yulin said that they were all good things, and they would be transformed into new things in our hands, and could be cast into fine iron and steel for our use.
Meng Gong laughed and said, "That's great. Hubili will definitely not be willing to fail. He will lose Daming, an important steel and grain producing area. If he hesitates and doesn't leave, he will definitely be caught and killed by Chuanfang and his men."
Hubili had just arrived in Daming Prefecture at that time.
After hearing the battle report from the front line, this guy's thick eyebrows twisted into thick black lines.
Tachaer felt strange. Why didn't the Shenwei Army come to surround the city? Could it be that the city was too big for them to surround?
Indeed, Daming City was built according to the terrain. The city wall alone is dozens of miles long, so it must be big enough. It was also the secondary capital of the Song Dynasty. The city is large and densely populated, and there are two rivers as obstacles for defense.
Shi Tianze almost cursed at this idiot.
How big is Daming City?
Is there anything that the Divine Might Army cannot surround?
There must be something fishy going on. Perhaps the vanguard of the Divine Might Army has already sneaked into the city.
While these people were still discussing in the military tent, the military school guarding the city came running in to report the situation: word spread in the city that the Shenwei Army was going to dig up the river to divert water to flood the city, and the common people began to flee the city with their families.
"Damn, this trick is so vicious." Shi Tianze immediately panicked.
Hubili asked disapprovingly: Is it possible to flood the city?
With such a big name, how could it be submerged?
Shi Tianze said nervously: "Your Highness, you don't know that although Daming City is large and has rivers on both sides for defense, the terrain here is low-lying, and the rivers on both sides are about two feet higher than the city, not to mention the Yellow River hanging high above. The New Song Army only needs to cut off the canal and release the Yellow River water to us, which will be enough for us to drink a pot."
Daming Prefecture is not afraid of anything except water. In years of natural disasters, the military and civilians here keep a close eye on the water conditions of the Grand Canal and the Zhang River.
Tachaer asked what to do?
If the city really became a swamp, his 30,000 cavalry would be useless. These warriors who galloped across the grasslands were majestic on horseback, but they were weak on water.
He roared, "Kill, kill everyone, burn the city and don't leave it to the New Song Army."
Shi Tianze repeatedly said that it was not possible. If the Shenwei Army flooded Daming, it would surely anger God and the people. We cannot do such a wicked thing as massacring the city. Let the Shenwei Army be punished by God.
A large number of his men are locals. If he asks his men to massacre the city, seeing their own brothers being slaughtered before their eyes will surely lead to mutiny. How can he lead the troops then?
Hubili knew the seriousness of the situation and was making a difficult decision when the general on guard outside came to report that the Shenwei Army had indeed blocked the water in the two rivers. The water level in the canal had risen sharply, and the water level in the Xiaoyin Canal had risen by three feet.
The Shenwei Army will definitely flood Daming Prefecture.
Tacaer said to Hubili: Among the thirty-six strategies, running away is the best one. If we want to leave, we should leave quickly, the sooner the better.
Hubili said helplessly: Let’s go, take everything we can.
When escaping, everyone wants to be in the front.
After receiving the order, the Mongolian army quickly packed their bags, and the Mongolian cavalry left through the north gate that afternoon. The soldiers in the city ran into people's houses to rob, rushed into stores to smash and destroy, and there was chaos everywhere.
In the darkness, teams of elite special forces of the Shenwei Army in plain clothes were dispatched. They captured and killed the ruffians while shouting, "The Shenwei Army is coming! The water is rising! The Shenwei Army is flooding the city! Run!", causing panic among the people in the entire city.
Before daybreak, the navy of the Shenwei Army used the deep-water channel of the blocked canal to send in a large number of warships to bombard the city gates. The special forces that had already sneaked into the city cooperated inside and outside, and after a fierce attack, they opened the west gate.
Under the cover of the navy's artillery, the Shenwei Army spread through the city like a flood. Hubili saw that the situation was hopeless at the north gate, so he rode away.
Shi Tianze was also stunned when he saw the Shenwei Army using this method to attack the city.
It turned out that the Shenwei Army was only trying to scare them and didn't really intend to do such a wicked thing as flooding the city.
Zhao Yulin would never allow such a thing to happen, but Hubili and Shi Tianze both believed it 100%. Why?
It’s because they dare to do it and do it often.
Hubili walked smoothly for most of the day, but was stopped at the Imperial Horse Camp thirty miles away.
The Shenwei Army let the Mongolian cavalry go and pursued their infantry fiercely, and even caught the big fish, Prince Hu, in the net.
Hubili dared not be careless and ordered a desperate breakout.
The Shenwei Army is coming in an endless stream and at a rapid speed. If we are not careful, we will be surrounded by them.
