Guo Ning remained silent.
The two of them were at a high place, and the wind coming from the north blew the flags behind them violently, making a flapping sound. The torch held high in the hands of the attendants also flickered; under the firelight, although his expression was calm, there was light and shadow shaking on his face and armor.
Guo Zhongyuan said again: "General Wang is still attacking the city. Should we..."
Guo Ning raised his hand and said, "Wait a little longer."
"As commanded."
In the past six months, Guo Ning has been sending people to infiltrate various departments of the Red Coat Army and continuously collect information. He probably understands the looseness and weakness of the Red Coat Army better than Yang An'er.
Just like the Yidu Mansion in front of you. This place was originally an important town in Daijin, with the General Administration Office, the Transportation Department, and the Military Command Department stationed there. At its peak, there were 118,718 households, and it governed seven counties and seven towns, all of which were wealthy.
When the Mongolian army invaded Shandong, Wanyan Salara, the commander of the Shandong East-West Route Army who was originally stationed here, took many strong men in the city and stationed them in Linzi, a smaller and stronger city, and handed the place over to Zhang Lin, who was in charge. Stay behind.
Later, Wanyan Salara was defeated by the Mongolian army. Zhang Lin had contact with the Red Coat Army, so he surrendered to Yang An'er. But Yang An'er's core areas of power were in Juzhou and Mizhou. The ones who really took advantage of the situation to control Yidu, Binzhou, and Zizhou were Li Quan and Li Tiegiang who led their headquarters from Weizhou.
This Li Tiejian had clearly conspired with the Mongols in an attempt to harm Ding Haijun, so when Guo Ning led his troops to visit Yang An'er, he asked Yang An'er to deal with this person.
However, Yang An'er never did this in order to unify the various tribes and avoid making people suspicious. He only slightly supported Binzhou Yin Chang and Yidu Zhang Lin to contain Li Quan's power. In this way, Li Quan nominally respected Yang An'er as the leader of the Red Coat Army, but in fact he did his own thing. He even continued to mobilize soldiers and civilians from Yidu to disperse them to Zizhou and Binzhou to start farming.
Just half a month ago, Li Quan mobilized a considerable fleet of vehicles to travel between Gaoping County and Yidu Prefecture in Zizhou. It is said that he mobilized more than 20,000 people in one go and ordered them to go to Zizhou to assist in the autumn harvest.
During this process, Li Quan's general Liu Qingfu proposed to take over the Yidu, Boxing, Shouguang and other salt fields controlled by Yidu Prefecture, which almost led to a conflict between the two families.
Liu Qingfu recruited two thousand elite soldiers under his command to enter the city overnight and seized two city gates and the treasury. After all, Zhang Lin was lacking in force, so he had to reluctantly suppress the dissatisfaction of his subordinates and swallow his anger.
In this way, although Yidu City is still a big city, the people in the city are not unified and its strength cannot be gathered. The guard general Liu Qingfu claimed to have two thousand elite soldiers, but he had to defend himself internally and externally. He did not dare to relax and there were loopholes everywhere.
This is obviously a God-given opportunity.
More than 10,000 Ding Haijun men marched forward bravely and launched a fierce attack. Guo Ning had all the advantages in terms of people, location and time. Our own side suddenly broke out again, and Li Quan's troops were scattered in the rear and it was difficult to rescue them in time. This momentum is like thunder striking a rotten tree...why worry about not being able to break the city?
But after several battles today, Ding Haijun really failed to break the city.
The number of the defenders was indeed very limited as stated in the intelligence, but they were extremely elite. With this elite as the backbone, the strong people in the city are encircled, and then relying on their own high city and deep pool, rowing out rolling logs and stones, Yidu Mansion has suddenly become a strong backbone.
Of course, Guo Ning believed in Ding Haijun's power. If he attacked hard and insisted on biting it, he would definitely be able to bite it into pieces. But, is it worth it? Is it necessary?
Think about it again, why did this city that should have been easy to win suddenly become a hard nut to crack? What does this mean?
Guo Ning pondered for a while and then said slowly: "During the daytime fighting, a group of heavily armored warriors often appeared in the city. Although there are only a few hundred in this group, everyone is skilled in martial arts and extremely fierce. Our army has climbed to the city four times today. Two of them had already gathered momentum, but the group of soldiers rushed to support them and actually drove our troops down the city!"
Guo Zhongyuan bowed and said: "I have ordered to capture him alive and find out his details."
Guo Ning nodded: "All the ordinary prisoners we captured today said they didn't know the details of this group of soldiers... This matter is very suspicious. How can any defender not know who his comrades are? Hey, if Lao Wang does that Even if we can break into the city, we still need to be prepared to prevent these soldiers from fighting with us in the streets."
Guo Zhongyuan was stunned for a moment: "General Wang, is there any chance of breaking the city?"
"Wang Shixian was previously involved in assisting the refugees in Shandong and had a lot of contacts with Zhang Lin's troops in the city. In addition, Yan Ning was the guard of Yidu City last year and also had connections in the city. Just now, two people reported that they saw them in the city. Familiar officers and local tycoons led their troops to fight. So I wrote a letter with code words and shot it on the city wall to encourage them to fight anyway."
"So that's it." Guo Zhongyuan stood on tiptoes and looked towards the Shizi Stream in the west of the city: "No wonder General Wang is still entangled with the enemy. He is waiting for acquaintances to come to the city, and then cooperate with each other inside and outside."
"Exactly. Let's see what the result is." Guo Ning pressed the golden knife on his waist and took a few steps in that direction: "Your troops are tired from fighting for a long time today. Please rest for a while. After the west of the city is shaken, I asked Zhao Jue to lead the people. Attack the east gate as a response."
To the south of Yidu City, there are mountainous areas such as Jiangjun Mountain, Wochan Mountain, and Wangchengbu, which are not suitable for large armies to deploy. Therefore, today's attack on the city will be carried out in three places: east, north and west, which is in line with the number of ways to encircle three columns and one in the art of war.
At this time, beside the west gate, Wang Shixian ordered his men to light more pine torches and continue their fierce attack under the cover of night. As the drums rumbled in the camp, and the shouts of officers from all walks of life came one after another, Wang Shixian himself stood a few hundred steps away from the city wall. Three soldiers each held large shields, guarding the left and right. The shields crackled from time to time. The ground bounced away the arrow.
Not far from his side, Yan Ning led a team of elite soldiers, ready to respond to the chaos at the top of the city and follow up with a fierce attack.
And ahead, Zhang Hui did not use a big gun, but held a long knife in his mouth, and led hundreds of soldiers to gather around the ladder and rush forward.
On the top of the city wall, the defenders' crossbowmen rained arrows on the crenels, and then raised the extra-long row of forks beyond the crenels, trying to push down the ladder.
As soon as the first ladder was put up on the city wall, the fork arrived. The soldiers below who were responsible for pushing the ladder shouted repeatedly, trying to stabilize the ladder. There were more than a dozen skilled soldiers who climbed directly onto the swaying ladder, ready to ascend the city at any time. They were covered by arrows, and five or six of them immediately fell down.
Those who landed on the ground suffered broken bones and tendons, and some even had their internal organs burst out from their abdomens, splattering into huge blood flowers.
This situation was so tragic and unusual that the attacking soldiers were inevitably delayed for a moment.
Zhang Hui was furious. He climbed up the second ladder and climbed twenty or thirty steps in one breath. He climbed on top and shouted: "Anyone who retreats will be killed. Follow me!"
Yan Ning, who was watching the battle from behind, said in a deep voice: "Jiang Jing's troops are about to be transferred, and Jin Dai is also here. He is the leader of Zhang Lin's attendants. He has more than fifty people under his command, and they are all good players!"
When they were shooting at each other with bows and crossbows from above and below the city, Ding Haijun put a letter of persuasion on the arrow clusters to persuade them to surrender, and notified their internal counterparts in secret words. The people in the city immediately fired back, also tying notes on the arrow clusters and marking them with secret words.
So Yan Ning already knew that in addition to Li Quan's men, there were also two men of Zhang Lin, a local tycoon in Yidu, who were active on this section of the city wall. Jiang Jing was a brave local from Yidu, known for his strong physique, and was a good friend of Yan Ning; while Jin Dai was one of Zhang Lin's trusted attendants, and had received a lot of money from Wang Shixian.
Since these two people responded, it means that Zhang Lin is also on the side of Ding Haijun. With the internal and external cooperation, the city will be destroyed.
At that moment, the offensive and defensive sides fought again. Zhang Hui managed to get back to the city, but was forced back by the defenders. He was ascending the third ladder, preparing to attack again.
Suddenly, drums sounded loudly high on the west gate tower.
Both the offensive and defensive sides were surprised and looked up. But in front of the city tower, forty or fifty bloody heads were lifted high and then thrown out with all their strength.
The head fell to the ground with a bang, and the blood in the cavity flowed like a stream.
Some people in the city shouted in unison: "This is what happens to traitors!"
Some smart soldiers grabbed the braid of the man's head and brought it back to Yan Ning to see.
Yan Ning held a torch to illuminate it, and when she took a closer look, she felt angry and angry, almost dizzy.
One of the heads was that of Jiang Jing that Yan Ning mentioned just now, and the others were his subordinates. There are still a few heads, including old, weak, women and children. It seems that the defenders have destroyed Jiang Jing's entire family!
Yan Ning turned around to look at Wang Shixian: "Jiang Jing is dead, I'm afraid something will happen to Jin Dai!"
Wang Shixian sighed: "Not to mention Jin Dai, even Yidu Zhizhong Zhang Lin, I'm afraid there will be trouble!"
"What can I do?"
There was nothing to hesitate about. Wang Shixian gave the order in a deep voice: "...retreat the troops!"
(End of chapter)
