Chapter 233 Abandoned City
She Chongming had just led the defeated army to retreat to Bijie and before settling down the wounded soldiers, She Chongming received the news that the Chishui Guards had been lost in a surprise attack by Luo Qianxiang.
It's over now!
The most unbearable loss is food and grass. She Chongming originally thought that he was about to face Zhanyi and Wumeng, two opponents that he had never seen. With the combat power of the Yongning Army, the war to aid Wusa should have ended in ten days, and there were many people along the way. It was a march to a friendly territory, so I only carried half a month's worth of food. All the grain stored in the Chishui warehouse is now in the hands of Luo Qianxiang - in this era, whoever has grain in their hands can release more manpower from the fields to fight! She Chongming made some calculations and found that the food he had saved would be enough for him for two years. In other words, even if Luo Beigou ate on the ground and invited the evil star Sun Jie to eat together, it would definitely be enough for them for two years; Although the population of Luo Beigou is small, at least two to three thousand people can be pulled from the fields to join the army!
These are still far-fetched worries, and the imminent problem is: in less than two or three days, the entire army will face the threat of running out of food - they fled in a panic during the Battle of Axe Gorge, and most of the food bags they carried with the army were thrown away! Of course, Bijie is An Bangyan's territory, and Brother An will not let himself go hungry no matter what. However, with Sun Jie so close at hand, when he could completely defeat Ussa - with the terrifying combat power of this Ming army, there was no doubt about it - including the march, which would only take seven or eight days, he could let go Why don’t you fight during the Bijie Festival?
Logically speaking, I can definitely help Brother An defend the city with more than 20,000 people, and they will definitely be able to defend the city for a long time - there are enough people and the city is not big. Like the Chishui Guards, since the last sneak attack by Sun Jie, The city walls were heightened and thickened, many new fortifications were built, and there was no shortage of garrison equipment... However, She Chongming knew that strategically, Bijie had to be abandoned.
An Bangyan stored a large amount of grain in Zhijin, but Bijie didn't have much. To the west is Ussa, which is the direction from which Sun Jie is about to attack. As long as Qixingguan is occupied as the main camp's food station and Laoyaguan in front is used as the advance base, logistical support from Wusha and Zhenxiong Prefectures can be continuously received from the rear, and there is almost no need to detour. The rebel dog can also supply military rations from Chishui, allowing this evil star to attack Bijie in an orderly manner. With Chishui to the north, Luo rebel dog does not need to make any moves. As long as he defends the city, his escape route to the north is completely blocked. , there are continuous mountains to the south. A hundred people can still hunt wild vegetables and fruits to satisfy their hunger, but they cannot support thousands of troops anyway, so escaping south is definitely a dead end... Then they can only rely on the east. I received support from Brother An. However, it is more than 300 miles from Zhijin to Bijie. Although the Xiangshui River can provide transportation capacity, it still has to go upstream. Together with the Shuixi people living in Bijie, they provide logistics for tens of thousands of people. Such a distance is not only a mountain road but also a countercurrent. How much manpower will be consumed? Moreover, Sun Jie will definitely send small groups of troops to sneak attack on the grain road from time to time. For such a long stretch of road, if you send heavy troops to escort them, they will just wait. If there are fewer grain escorts, they will attack. If one is not careful and is attacked by a sneak attack, he can just destroy the transport ship. Shen can leave in a hurry, or Brother An's wealth will be wiped out in a few months - and Brother An will have to face the attack of Zhu Xieyuan's tens of thousands of troops alone!
Therefore, no matter what, Bijie cannot hold on and must give up voluntarily.
Having said that, She Chongming still couldn't bear to part with Chishui, and he was afraid that She Yin would get angry and lose all his money regardless of his anger, so he asked him to stay in Bijie to help the Shuixi friendly forces organize a retreat, and he led 6,000 elite troops northward without stopping. Whether he can get back his old nest is another matter. She Chongming won't be willing to give it up if he doesn't give it a try.
When they arrived at the Aluo Secret Site, She Chongming already knew that most of the trip would be in vain: the Aluo Secret Site had been burned to the ground, and many of the ruins were still warm, indicating that the guys from Shuinao Village had just left the day before - they If you have time to raid south, of course you will also defend Chishui well. But even though we were here, we still wanted to go to the city to see it, so everyone moved on.
The Chishui River was already in sight. Unexpectedly, She Chongming discovered from a distance that the floating bridge was still there! Regardless of whether he was negligent or fearless, he was afraid that the Luo rebel dog would cut off the pontoon bridge in front of his eyes. When he was a few miles away from the river, King She ordered the entire army to charge! At the forefront were more than 200 knights. These people were either the leaders of each village or well-known warriors. They were also mid-level and senior officers among the 6,000 elites. When the cavalry team ran at full speed to a few dozen feet of the pontoon bridge, She Chongming saw Luo Qianxiang's arrangement clearly and ordered the entire army to stop at the top of his lungs. However, it was still a little slower... The pontoon bridge was connected by wooden planks nailed to the boats lying across the Chishui River. When there is a boat, pull out the loose pin connecting the two boats in the middle and push it aside, wait for the boat to pass by and then connect again - although the bridge is clear and unobstructed, all the boats are filled with dry firewood and dead branches! No need to ask, gunpowder, rosin and other tinders had already been sprinkled on it - the vicious Luotei dog didn't neglect to leave the pontoon bridge unburned, but wanted to burn both the people and the bridge together!
After running at full speed for more than half a mile, the horses were all out of temper and were about to reach full speed. Although everyone heard King She's order and shouted and reined in, the horses still rushed forward more than ten feet under the influence of inertia. Instead of taking small steps, She Chongming was horrified to find wisps of familiar white smoke rising from the south wall of Chishui! King She jumped off the horse like a reflex. He lowered his head and pulled the reins with his left hand to block the war horse in front of him. In the blink of an eye, a hail of bullets hit his face. With the muffled sound of several projectiles entering the flesh, the war horse He jumped up suddenly and fell to the ground with a scream... Half of the two hundred knights who charged were knocked off their horses in the blink of an eye!
In just a few days, Luo Beigou actually moved a lot of Yongning's bronze cannons and put them on the south wall of Chishui! "They are all robbing me of my food. There are plenty of people for this dog!" She Chongming thought sadly and angrily. In fact, when Luo Qianxiang transported artillery to Chishui, he did not mobilize as many people to clear the road as She Chongming thought. He only prepared a large number of wooden planks and laid a temporary plank road more than 100 feet long in the iron caltrop array.
In Chengdu Mansion, Longquanyi, under Yongning City, and Axe Gorge... She Chongming had suffered numerous losses from fire attacks and artillery attacks, and the fear had been deeply ingrained in his heart. Retreat and join Brother An first. Longchang Jiuyi is so large in depth and surrounded by mountains. Yongning Army and Shuixi Army are familiar with the terrain. It is the only chance to introduce the east and west Ming armies into the mountains and then wait for an opportunity to divide and annihilate them.
Like Axe Gorge, She Chongming did not dare to collect the bodies of the dozens of warriors who died on the spot, but only tried to snatch back the wounded who were still breathing. Fortunately, Luo Qianxiang's artillery crew was far less well-trained than Liu Tieniu's men, and it took a long time for the artillery to be reloaded. Until the Yongning army retreated, the artillery on the wall only fired two or three more times in a demonstration. The Yongning troops, who had extensive experience in being bombarded, fell to the ground when they saw the white smoke coming out of the wall. These shots did not cause much damage. However, the successive defeats had a great impact on morale, and the consequences of hundreds of officers being killed and injured were even more fatal: the chain of command of half of the troops was completely broken. She Chongming knew that such losses would bring huge difficulties to future wars.
King She and his entourage returned to Bijie on the third day dejectedly. Bijie is not a big city, but it is still a city. It is not an easy task to organize the entire city to evacuate to the mountains hundreds of miles away. She Yin was extremely busy, and She Chongming's butt had just touched the stool when the alarm on the Western Wall sounded: Sun Jie's troops had appeared at Laoyaguan!
How did this Han dog come so fast? Could it be that they all have wings?
In fact, only Panshiying and Liu Tieniu's artillery team came. At this moment, Sun Jie's main force had not yet reached Qixing Pass.
Sun Jie had no intention of fighting a head-on battle in Ussa. He left most of the Panshi Battalion and the Auxiliary Battalion in Axe Gorge to serve as rear troops to support Liu Tieniu's artillery batteries on the two walls. He led the Tiger Wing Battalion, Huben Battalion and a portion of the Auxiliary Battalion, and a local soldier named An Yun'ao temporarily served as the The auxiliary soldiers took the several artillery batteries left by Tieniu and headed straight for Usa Mansion.
Usa was very empty. An Xiaoliang took away the main force, leaving only less than two thousand old and weak defenders. Of course, as long as there is a city wall, even if it is not very high, it will be a tough nut to crack for the coalition forces of Zhanyi and Wumeng. However, Sun Jie had artillery. After several rounds of artillery blasts opened the city gate, the rest of the street fighting was left to Long and An Yun'ao. After sending An Qijue to the chieftain's mansion and arranging for the Wumeng army stationed at Bai Niang's house to assist in the defense, Sun Jie returned with An Yun'ao and his entire army.
When he saw the scouts and knew that the commander was on his way over, Mr. Ishii was bored to death watching the auxiliary soldiers hoisting copper cannons from the stone wall, so he left half of the auxiliary soldiers to sort out the food and supplies discarded by the Yongning army and wait for Sun Jie. He took Panshiying and Liu Tieniu and went straight to Bijie. There were only twenty or thirty Shuixi defenders responsible for delivering the news at the Qixing Pass, which was a post station. They saw with their own eyes that the Yongning Army of King She, who was leaving the pass in great strides, was bombarded by the Ming army's artillery and returned like a tragic image. Liu Tieniu, who was at the bottom, only displayed three cannons, and the defenders dispersed before he could give the order to fire...
In order to ensure the airtightness of the cannon bore during firing, the size of the large iron bullets stuffed into the muzzle was very demanding, and a mallet had to be used to knock it into the muzzle when loading. Tieniu, who strives for excellence, requires the craftsmen who cast the cannonballs to make the shells (cannonball molds) a few inches larger. On weekdays, they ask the artillery crew to use iron tumblers one by one to get them to the right size. Those that were beaten too hard and could be inserted into the muzzle of the cannon without a mallet, Iron Bull would take off the unlucky guy's inner clothes, wrap them in iron bullets, and fire them. Therefore, Tieniu has actually put a lot of effort into each seemingly simple iron ball. The defenders all ran away before the cannon fired, but Tieniu was very angry: the iron ball knocked into the muzzle could not be pulled out, and he could not just load it and put it back - otherwise, the gunpowder would get wet and would never be able to open the door again. It's a small matter if the cannon is useless, but if a spark falls accidentally, the disaster will be huge! After cursing for a long time, Tieniu fired three rounds into the open space, and then sent the auxiliary soldiers to pick up the precious iron ball... After that, the Panshi Battalion drove all the way to Laoyaguan and began to build field fortifications.
She Chongming and his son did not know that the Ming army that arrived at Laoyaguan was just a rock camp in Shijing. No matter how good your eyesight was at such a distance, you could not tell which of the black heads were combat soldiers and which were auxiliary soldiers. While sending as many Yongning troops as possible to guard the wall, they also tried their best to rush to the rear to transport various supplies in the city. The original plan of piling firewood everywhere to completely burn Bijie to ashes and hindering Sun Jie's pursuit as much as possible was definitely too late to be implemented, so he had to pile some kindling materials in several important places, which was better than nothing.
Sun Jie also didn't know that She Chongming was racing against time to transport supplies and prepare to abandon Bijie. She Chongming's judgment was very accurate. Sun Jie's most ideal battle was for the Yongning army to defend Bijie, and then fight unhurriedly, constantly consuming An Bangyan's supplies to bleed him - in this way, he could help Lord Zhu of Guizhou. A lot of pressure was relieved there, and the battle became easier for the two friendly forces of Lao Shun and Liu Chao to deal with the Shuixi Army, whose strength had been dispersed by themselves.
