Chapter 2225: The strong wall clears the country, Xiaoguan is in danger
Although Lantian was not as good as Wuguan, it was undoubtedly a strong city. However, it only lasted for more than ten days before it was breached by the powerful Qin army.
In order to conquer Lantian County, Li Jing's troops also paid a heavy price, with total casualties reaching 20,000.
You know, the Qin army relied on a sneak attack to break through Wuguan, and the casualties had reached 20,000.
The casualties from the strong attack on Lantian reached 20,000, which shows how brutal the Lantian offensive and defensive battle was.
Of course, not all of the 20,000 casualties were Qin soldiers, at least 10,000 were prisoners of war from the Tang army.
After the Sizhou battle, the Qin army captured nearly 30,000 Tang army prisoners. Naturally, these people were the best cannon fodder to fight against the Tang army.
Li Jing was naturally reluctant to waste all the elite Qin army on siege, so he decided to use Tang army prisoners of war to attack the city, thereby consuming the Tang army's combat power.
After Li Jing dispersed all the prisoners of war of the Tang Army, he reorganized them into a separate army, and promised them that as long as they captured Chang'an, they would not only be freed, but also given the same treatment as the Qin Army. POW troops were able to obey orders.
In other words, the Qin army on the Lantian front line, in addition to the 100,000 main force, also had 30,000 prisoners of war reorganized troops, totaling 130,000 troops.
In the Battle of Lantian, the prisoners of the Tang Army cooperated with the Qin Army to attack the city, which greatly reduced the casualty rate of the Qin Army.
In the end, the Qin army only paid 10,000 casualties and captured the strong city of Lantian, killing 7,000 enemies and capturing 5,000 prisoners. Li Shimin and Yang Jian led the remaining 8,000 troops to flee to Raoguan.
"General, before the Tang army withdrew, they burned all the warehouses, and all the young men were transferred to Xiurao Pass. What we captured was an abandoned city." Xu Huang reported with a solemn face.
"The bastard Li Shimin is really despicable. He deliberately left a city full of old and weak people to consume our army's food and grass. What the hell, bah." Zhang He cursed angrily.
Before Lantian broke the city, Li Shimin had burned the grain and grass, so that now the people in the city had no food to eat, and there would be a famine soon.
If the Qin army did not provide food and grass for disaster relief, the people in the city would starve to death sooner or later, and then this infamy would also fall on Qin Hao.
However, if food relief is provided, it will undoubtedly increase the food burden of the Qin army.
You know, the Qin army's food pressure is already very high, and it is only enough to support the frontline army for two months at most.
If Li Jing provided food to help the victims, it would undoubtedly shorten the Qin army's campaign.
This was Li Shimin's naked conspiracy. Regardless of whether Li Jing provided relief or not, the Tang State would be the beneficiary, but the people of Lantian would suffer.
After realizing Li Shimin's sinister intentions, Li Jing felt troubled and immediately asked: "How many people are left in Lantian City?"
"All the young and strong have been forcibly taken away by the Tang army, and now there are still 50,000 old and weak people left in Lantian City." Xu Huanghui reported.
Fifty thousand old and weak people, that is, 50,000 mouths, is not too many, but it is still a lot. The Qin army can naturally afford it, but this will undoubtedly increase the Qin army's food and grass burden.
"Go down with the order and provide food to the people for disaster relief."
Li Jing finally chose to provide disaster relief. After all, his lord was about to become emperor and his reputation must not be damaged.
"But we can't put too much. We can just use the porridge method to ensure that the people have food and clothing. In this way, the pressure on our army's food and grass will be much less."
After the Battle of Sizhou and the Battle of Xiangyang, the food and grass supplies in Sizhou and Jingzhou were not rich. If the battle could not be ended in two months, Li Jing would have to retreat, so it was natural to save the remaining food and grass.
This incident also gave Li Jing a reminder. If the Tang army continues to do this next time, how should the Qin army respond?
For the attacker, maintaining a strong wall and clearing the field is really an unsolvable problem.
Li Jing decided to write a letter to Ying Hao, asking Ying Hao to increase the supply of food and grass in order to deal with Li Tang's possible tactics of strengthening the wall and clearing the country.
As for where the extra food and grass come from? Then Li Jing couldn't care less. He believed that his lord would find a way. Anyway, he didn't believe that a country as big as Qin would really be reduced to the point where it would use up all its food and grass.
After receiving Li Jing's letter, Ying Hao was so angry that he wanted to curse.
The Qin State did have surplus grain, but it was all in Jizhou and Hetao, thousands of miles away from Wuguan. It would be several months before it could be transported.
Currently, only Si and Jing are the two places that can directly supply grain to the Wuguan front line. However, due to the two previous wars, the grain reserves in these two places are really going to be exhausted.
Ying Hao could not produce food, so he could only urge Li Jing to end the battle before the founding ceremony. Otherwise, no matter how great the results were, he could only suspend the attack on Tang Dynasty and save strength for later.
Ying Hao's response made Li Jing feel a lot of pressure. The insufficient food and grass in the rear also meant that once the Tang army strengthened its walls and cleared the country, the Qin army had no other way to deal with it except to consume military rations.
Li Jing felt extremely uneasy about this, but there was no way to avoid it. He could only hope that Li Shimin still had some humanity, would not pass the burden of the war on to the common people, and would end the Guanzhong War as soon as possible.
Just when Li Jing was about to march into Raoguan, he received news of Gao Chong and Yuwen's defeat in Chengdu.
After breaking through Lantian, Gao Chong and Yuwen Chengdu were ordered to pursue Li Shimin's defeated army, but they fell into Sima Yi's trick of luring the enemy and accidentally encountered an ambush by the Tang army, losing three thousand troops.
Of course, Li Jing had heard about Sima Yi for a long time. Sima Fang, the second son of the Shanxi patriarch, was also one of the only imperialists to survive the Luoyang coup.
Regarding Sima Yi, Li Jing only had two words to comment on him, and that was: cheating.
As a veteran of the Jin Dynasty, Sima Fang should have had a loftier future, but he was implicated by his son Sima Yi and had to commit suicide to apologize. The entire Sima family was also implicated, and his future career was in doubt.
What a misfortune for our family!
Li Jing sighed inwardly. He had a good sense of Sima Fang, but he didn't expect that he would end up like this.
On November 15th, Li Jing led his army to Aoguan. He thought that what he saw would be a dilapidated scene, but he did not expect that the restored Aoguan had begun to take shape.
If the Tang army is allowed to repair it for another month or two, the Tang army may be able to restore the grandeur of Guya Pass.
"How did Tang Jun do it in such a short period of time?" Zhang He asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"The Tang army gave up building the city wall and instead adopted the method of fortification and built a city wall on the old site of Yiguan. This reduced the defense, but saved time and was able to give full play to the geographical advantages of Yiguan."
Li Jing said with admiration, a little curious in his heart about who could build such a city from scratch in such a short period of time.
Relying on the geographical advantages of Guya Pass, the defensive power of the walled city in front of us is not as good as that of powerful passes such as Wuguan, but it is no worse than that of fortified cities such as Lantian.
This is destined to be another tough battle.
Li Jing thought to himself, but he was not afraid at all.
After capturing Lantian, the Qin army captured another 5,000 Tang soldiers, bringing the number of prisoners of war back to 25,000.
With more than 90,000 elite Qin troops and 25,000 cannon fodder, it is only a matter of time to capture this mere Raoguan Walled City.
Inside the Pass.
Li Shimin helped Sima Yi, who was saluting, and said: "General Sima, I didn't expect that you really completed the task on time. It's a pity that the Qin army's offensive was too fierce and Lantian couldn't hold on longer, otherwise there would definitely be more trouble here at Yaoguan." Solid.”
After saying that, Li Shimin showed a look of shame on his face. Sima Yi completed the task of rebuilding Raoguan as promised, but he lost the strong city of Lantian before he even arrived for a month, so that now the Aoguan Walled City has become Guanzhong. The final barrier.
But how long can this walled city, which was just built, be able to hold off the Qin army?
"Immediately send an order to Changsun Wuji to lead Chang'an's 40,000 troops to Raoguan. I will have a showdown with Li Jing at Raoguan. The person who is locked up will be killed. If the barrier is broken, everyone will die." Li Shimin said with a determined look on his face. ordered.
"promise."
"Report... to inform my lord that a large number of Qin troops have appeared in the west, and Xiaoguan is in danger."
"What?"
Li Shimin, Sima Yi, Yang Jian and others were shocked.
(End of chapter)
