Chapter 2005: Qin Hui’s rebellion
The setting sun is setting in the west, and the setting sun is like blood.
After repelling the attack of the Nanman slaves again, Meng Gong panted heavily and supported the city wall with a tired look on his face. He watched the enemy troops retreat in an orderly manner outside the city, leaving only corpses scattered on the ground, but his heart felt cold.
"General, we have suffered another 500 casualties. Now our strength has reached a critical point. If we continue to fight like this, even if we lose another 500 men, our current strength will not be enough to defend the four gates." Huo Jun reported with a wry smile. road.
Large cities such as Luoyang, Xiangyang, and Jiangling have a minimum number of defenders due to the size of the city. Only when the number of defenders in the city is higher than the minimum number of defenders can the city's defensive power be fully utilized.
Luoyang is a huge city with a population of one million, so the minimum number of defenders is 30,000. There must be at least 30,000 defenders to ensure that the four gates are not lost.
This is also the biggest reason why all the civil and military officials in the city were so panicked when Li Shimin made a surprise attack on Luoyang. As long as the number of troops was less than 30,000, Luoyang City might fall, and anyone else would be panicked.
Jiangling City is a large city with a population of 200,000. The minimum number of defenders is naturally not as large as Luoyang, and only 8,000 is enough.
If the number of defenders is less than 8,000, Jiangling may be breached by the enemy, first breaking through one city wall and then entering the city. At that time, the other three city gates will also be destroyed.
This is also the biggest reason why Qin Zheng sent two reinforcements when Meng Gong first defended Jiangling.
Jiangling City requires at least 8,000 defenders, and Meng Gong only had 8,000 defenders in his hands. Once the casualties gradually increased, they would not be able to support the defense of Jiangling City, so how could it be defended?
After Qin Zheng's second reinforcements and the reorganization of the strong men in the city into an army, Meng Gong managed to hold on for two months with great difficulty. Now, the number of defenders in Jiangling City is only 7,000, which is already lower than what the city needs. Minimum number of defenders.
This is because the defender is Meng Gong, who is good at defense. If it were another general, the defenders would definitely not be able to defend Jiangling with less than 8,000 troops. But even Meng Gong has been forced into a desperate situation. After all, his defense force No matter how powerful you are, you can't create soldiers?
Meng Gong turned to look at Huo Jun and asked solemnly: "How many people are left?"
"Less than seven thousand." Huo Jun answered truthfully.
Hearing this, Meng Gong immediately clenched his fists, his eyes full of pain and unwillingness.
The Jiangling offensive and defensive battle was able to last for two months. Meng Gong had already handed in an almost full score. At this time, even if Jiangling fell, he would not be blamed.
But Meng Gong had already made so many sacrifices to defend Jiangling, so he naturally didn't want Jiangling City to fall at this time.
Now the reinforcements are dozens of miles away, and the 100,000 reinforcements from Hebei have also arrived in Fancheng. It will only take more than ten days to reach Jiangling City.
As long as Jiangling can defend for more than ten days, the crisis will be resolved automatically as soon as Hebei reinforcements arrive. However, in these short ten days, it is an impossible task for Jiangling.
In order to capture Jiangling City, the Shu-Chu coalition lost 60,000 to 70,000 cannon fodder and 15,000 elite troops.
Nearly 100,000 people died under Jiangling City. Such huge losses made Liu Ji and Liu Xiu even more determined to win Jiangling. They could never watch the reinforcements arrive without being indifferent, so the next attack command was even more crazy.
Now there are only 7,000 defenders left in Jiangling City. If I hadn't relied on Meng Gong's command, I wouldn't have been able to support the defense of Jiangling City.
It would be difficult to defend such a force for even one day, let alone ten days.
In addition, the defense supplies in Jiangling City have been almost exhausted.
The three kinds of materials, namely stone bullets, jade stones and rolling logs, had been exhausted half a month ago, so Meng Gong ordered the people's houses to be demolished, using wall stones as flying stones and jing stones, and roof beams as rolling logs.
The demolition brigade of the Qin Army first demolished around the city wall, and now they have demolished less than half of Jiangling City.
Tens of thousands of people lived on the streets and could only sleep in the marching tents issued by the Qin army.
This difficulty is nothing to worry about. The key is that the arrows have also run out of kerosene.
Stones, rolling wood and stone bullets can be produced by oneself, but arrows and kerosene cannot be produced by oneself. Once they are used up, they will be gone. However, these two materials are necessary for defending the city. If they are gone, the pressure of defending the city will be heavy. That's big.
Today, there are no supplies or reinforcements in Jiangling City, and the morale of the soldiers is low. They have reached the point where they have run out of ammunition, food, and fuel. It is impossible to hold on for ten days.
"General, our current military strength is insufficient. How about we continue to recruit troops? There are more than 200,000 people in Jiangling City, so it's okay..."
"no."
Before Huo Jun finished speaking, he was directly interrupted by Meng Gong, who said expressionlessly: "All the strong men in Jiangling City have been recruited by our army, and the remaining ones are just old and weak women and children. For the defenders, The city will not play any role at all, but will be a disservice.
In addition, the people of Jiangling have great support for our army. Almost every household has made sacrifices. The general cannot bear to let Jiangling turn into a dead city. "
After hearing this, a trace of shame flashed across Huo Jun's face. He was a native of Jingzhou, so he naturally did not want Jiangling to be defeated. He would not persuade Meng Gong to recruit troops if he had no other choice.
"But if we don't sacrifice human lives, it's impossible to hold on until the reinforcements arrive." Huo Jun said with a bitter smile.
Meng Gong glanced sideways at Huo Jun. He knew that the deputy was concerned about chaos and did not really care about life, so he said: "But the problem now is that even if we take human lives, we will definitely not be able to persist, so why bother letting the people The sacrifice was in vain.”
Huo Jun was at a loss for words. He, who was also good at guarding, naturally knew how bad the situation in Jiangling was. It could no longer be filled by relying on human lives.
Seeing that Huo Jun didn't speak, Meng Gong didn't have anything to say either. The two looked at each other in silence for a long time.
After a long time, the arrival of a soldier broke the silence between the two.
"Two generals, something bad has happened. Qin Hui opened the south gate and surrendered to the Shu army."
"What?"
Meng Gong and Huo Jun exclaimed at the same time, unable to believe that Qin Hui, who was born in the Qin family, would rebel and surrender to Liu Ji at this time.
Meng Gong grabbed the soldier's collar and asked: "Qin Hui is a civilian and has no military power. How did he open the city gate?"
"Qin Hui persuaded the new military captain, and then he proudly opened the south gate."
Suddenly, Meng Gong remembered Qin Hui's suggestion to him the day before, saying that the fall of Jiangling City was inevitable and that he should break out of the siege in advance while he still had some strength left.
Qin Hui's decision to break out of the siege was naturally rejected by Meng Gong. After all, there were more than 100,000 enemy troops outside the city, and the risk of breaking out was even greater at this time.
Not only did Meng Gong not agree to break out of the encirclement, he also swore in public that he would live or die with Jiang Ling, in order to strengthen everyone's determination.
At that time, Qin Hui also swore, but now he opened the city gate. Obviously, he never thought about sacrificing his life for righteousness. He was just fooling Meng Gong at that time.
