Chapter 2612: Breaking Yangping Pass (Part 2)
"Last night, Tu Xingsun sent a letter from Fei Ge, saying that he had completed the task and successfully burned down the Xinzheng grain depot."
As soon as Li Jing said this, the generals present immediately became excited. None of them knew the plan to attack Nanzheng.
In addition, it seemed almost impossible for them to sneak to the enemy's rear and burn grain and grass before Yangping Pass and Xicheng were broken.
Seeing that all the generals except Wu Qi looked in disbelief, Li Jing informed them of his plan.
Originally, Yang Jian, Yang Ren and other Yuqing disciples were a little curious. After all, it had been more than a month since the opening of Yangping Pass, but Tu Xingsun and Long Xuhu had not been seen. Now it seems that it was because they had been assigned the task by the governor early. ah.
But after understanding the full story of Li Jing's plan, all the generals couldn't help but worry about Tu Xingsun and others. After all, this mission was too thrilling, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was a narrow escape.
The 3,000 soldiers led by Tu Xingsun had to lurk under the noses of the 40,000 Shu troops, dig into Nanzheng City and burn the Nangrain Depot before they could return. If any of these steps went wrong, the entire army would surely be wiped out. fate.
Yang Jian, Yang Ren and other Yuqing disciples no longer worried about the safety of Tu Xingsun and Long Xuhu.
Although Li Jing arranged an retreat plan for Tu Xingsun, who knows if it will be discovered by the Shu Han people?
After all, they are fellow disciples. Although they usually show great dislike, Tu Xingsun has gained face from the Yuqing sect, and Tu Xingsun is no longer so disliked in the hearts of Yang Jian and others.
"Last night, the governor sent someone to observe the country with a telescope. The fire in the direction of Hanzhong was soaring into the sky. The fire was so powerful that it illuminated the entire night sky. It should be unlikely that anything could go wrong."
As he said that, Li Jing also smiled for a long time. After all, after the plan to burn down the Shu Army's grain depot was successful, his certainty of capturing Hanzhong soared from 30% to 90%.
The reason why it is 90%, not 100%, is because the people of Hanzhong still have some food in their hands. Although it is a drop in the bucket and cannot support hundreds of thousands of Shu troops, it is barely enough to support the Shu troops for a while.
Currently, in addition to requisitioning food from the private sector, the Shu army has only two ways to obtain food and grass:
One is to transport grain from Sichuan, but this method is too inefficient.
The road to Shu is difficult to walk, and it is even difficult for people to get out, let alone transport food.
In addition, the cost of transporting grain from Shu is also high, making it difficult to transport grain on a large scale and unable to fundamentally solve the Shu army's food shortage problem.
The second is to use human flesh to supplement food. This is what Li Jing is most worried about and is likely to happen.
Don't think that the Shu army can't do this kind of thing, after all, this kind of thing has happened before.
You know, the Shu Han ruled Hanzhong for a short time, and the proportion of Chinese soldiers in the Shu army was also very low.
But once Hanzhong falls, it will become the bridgehead for Qin to invade Shuzhong, and the people of Hanzhong will also become the support of the Qin army.
If that happens, for the Shu army, massacring the local people in Hanzhong will actually eliminate the disaster and prevent the Qin from continuing to grow.
Therefore, once the fall of Hanzhong becomes a foregone conclusion, the Shu army will definitely not care about the life and death of ordinary people. Even if they burn all the jade and stone and reduce Hanzhong to a scorched earth, they will not leave an intact Hanzhong for the Qin army.
In order to prevent his vision from coming true, Li Jing must capture Yangping Pass as soon as possible to prevent the Shu Han from harming Hanzhong.
"The Nanzheng grain depot was burned down and caused such a big noise. The officers and soldiers of the Shu army were not blind, so it was impossible for them not to see it.
Therefore, even if Zhang Ren and Liu Er block the news, they will not be able to block it for long, and what our army has to do now is to let the Shu army in Yangping Pass know the news.
When all the Shu troops at Yangping Pass know about it and their food and grass are burned, and the front line is about to run out of food, the army will be in chaos and morale will be greatly reduced, and our army will be able to capture Yangping Pass easily. "
Although Li Jing had previously attacked Yangping Pass to attract the Shu Han's attention and create opportunities for Tu Xingsun, he had no intention of forcibly attacking Yangping Pass.
But facts have proven that it is indeed too difficult to break through natural chasms like Yangpingguan from the outside in a short period of time.
Even Li Jing was frustrated, but he was not discouraged. After all, if he couldn't attack the city, he would attack the heart.
Li Jing didn't attack his heart before, because he had no chance to attack his heart at all. But now that a great opportunity is right in front of him, he will naturally not let it go.
Hinata closed.
Three generals, Zhang Ren, Liu Er, and Kong Peng, were all on standby. After all, the Qin army had sent people to burn down the grain depots in Nanzheng, so the next offensive would be even more fierce.
But what none of the three generals Zhang and Ren expected was that the intensity of the Qin army's attack today was not as fierce as yesterday, and Yang Jian, Long Qie and other powerful generals did not participate in the siege.
Could it be that the Qin army was exhausted after a continuous fierce attack?
Just when the three of them were confused, a soldier handed over an arrow and said: "Grand Governor, look, this is shot by the Qin army. Each arrow is tied with the same arrow. Contents of the letter of surrender.”
Zhang Ren took the paper without being surprised. After all, Li Jing had used the same trick more than once.
The content of the letter brought up by the arrow also changed from persuading the defenders in the pass to give up resistance, to scolding Liu Yu for his treason and murdering the late emperor, and preaching about what the Qin Dynasty should do.
Zhang Ren wanted to see what kind of tricks Li Jing was planning to play again.
But when Zhang Ren finished reading, his face turned pale, and he shouted quickly: "Collect all the letterheads immediately. The surrender letter sent by the Qin army is all words that disturb the morale of our army. No one is allowed to read it. Anyone who disobeys will be punished according to military law."
"promise."
Seeing this, Liu Er and Kong Peng felt that Zhang Ren had gone too far. After all, it was not the first time that sending a letter to persuade people to surrender had happened. Why was the reaction so big this time?
But after reading the contents of the letter, they understood why Zhang Ren was so extreme.
The Zhuzi Army of the Great Qin Dynasty ran away after setting the fire. Logically speaking, they did not know that the Shu Han did not put out the fire.
However, Li Jingshe's letter of persuasion to surrender clearly stated that the Shu army's grain depot had been burned, and yesterday the entire night sky in the direction of Nanzheng was lit up, which is the best proof. He advised the Shu army officers and soldiers not to engage in unnecessary resistance. Because soon they will run out of food.
If it is not stopped and this news spreads throughout the army, the Shu army will definitely be demoralized. How can it withstand the Qin army's attack?
Zhang Ren's reaction speed is not bad, and the punishment is very severe. It can really scare most people, but it is still useless.
Even if most of the Shu army obeyed the order and voluntarily turned it over without reading the contents of the letter, there were always a few who were prickly and read the contents of the letter driven by curiosity.
As long as you read the contents of the letter and think of the vision in the sky last night, you will understand that what the letter said is true and is not some deception.
In addition, the Nanzheng Fire also burned for more than one night. The fire spread from the grain depot to Beicheng District. A large number of houses were burned down, so that Nanzheng was still in flames the next night.
On the first day, only a small number of soldiers at Yangping Pass noticed the fire in Nanzheng. However, after Li Jing's letter urging surrender, many people paid attention to the fire in Nanzheng the next day.
When the soldiers saw that there was really a fire in the direction of Nanzheng, they spread the news privately, and soon most of the soldiers in Yangping Pass knew about it.
The granary in the rear was burned down and the front line was about to run out of food.
The soldiers of the Shu Army who learned this couldn't possibly not panic, after all, it would kill them on the front line.
Zhang Ren, Liu Er and others naturally knew about the situation in Yangping Pass, but they had no solution. After all, they could not even deprive the soldiers of their right to communicate privately.
Zhang Ren thought about it all night but couldn't think of a solution. Finally, Shen Shiqi came up with a solution that was not a solution.
After reviewing his proposal, he determined that the bright sky last night was an anomaly, rather than the burning of the grain depot, and asked the rear to transport a batch of grain from the people's hands to the front line, and use the lake to hold back the front line. Soldier.
Zhang Ren had no other choice but to do what Shen Shiqi said. As for how long this method could keep the soldiers at bay? All I can say is that we can do it as long as we can.
Li Jing's fire turned the originally impregnable Hanzhong defense line into a broken ship full of loopholes.
Zhang Ren and Shen Shiqi are the craftsmen of this broken ship. They are trying their best to slow down the sinking speed of this broken ship, but unfortunately their efforts are destined to be in vain.
If they were facing ordinary generals, it might be possible for the two of them to carry him over, but unfortunately, they encountered Li Jing this time.
It was obviously impossible for Li Jing to give them any chance to turn around.
On the third day after the Nanzheng grain depot was burned down, while the morale of the Yangping Pass defenders was shaken and their morale was declining, the Qin army once again launched an aggressive attack on Yangping Pass, and this time the intensity was unprecedented.
Yang Jian, Long Qie, Gongsun Xuanyuan and other famous generals personally participated in the siege under the command of Li Jing. The morale of the Qin army also returned to its peak at this moment.
On the other hand, the Shu army's morale was turbulent and their morale was declining. How could they stop the Qin army's offensive?
"Report...report to the Commander-in-Chief, there are Qin troops in the East Third District coming to the city."
After hearing the report, Zhang Ren decisively ordered: "Order General Kong Peng to lead a thousand elite troops over and be sure to kill all the Qin troops in the Eastern Third District."
As soon as he finished speaking, another soldier came to report.
"The commander-in-chief is not good. There are also Qin troops in the West Fourth District, and Yang Jian is among them."
"Let General Liu Er lead his army over immediately, and be sure to block Yang Jian and the Qin army."
"Captain, the Qin army appears in the East Sixth District..."
"Captain, West Second District..."
"..."
The defenders were still the same army, guarding the same level, and facing the same enemies as before, but the performance of the Shu army was completely different.
The reason for this is not that the Qin army has become stronger, but that the Shu army has become weaker.
Zhang Ren commanded the army to hold on from the morning to the afternoon. Countless defenders died in the battle, but the Qin army on the wall became more and more numerous and could not be driven out.
At this point, Zhang Ren had to accept the fact that Yangping Pass could no longer be defended no matter how unwilling he was. What he could do now was not to defend the pass but to stop losses.
Zhang Ren ordered the burning of grain depots, armories and material depots, and then issued a retreat order, leaving Liu Er and Kong Peng to lead 10,000 soldiers who had not yet participated in the battle.
Li Jing was also worried that Yangping Pass would be burned to rubble, so after entering the pass, he asked most of the people to put out the fire first. However, he cleared the back door first and ordered Yang Jian to lead five thousand cavalry in pursuit, and soon ran into Liu Erhe. Kong Peng's army breaks off the rear.
The narrow road to Shu was not conducive to cavalry charges, and the impact of the Qin cavalry was difficult to exert. However, after half an hour of fierce fighting between the two sides, Long Qie arrived in time with 10,000 reinforcements.
In the end, under the siege of 5,000 Qin cavalry and nearly 10,000 Qin troops, the 10,000 Shu troops responsible for cutting off the rear were defeated after holding on for two hours. Only less than a thousand people fled back with Kong Peng and Liu Er. Nanzheng.
Yang Jian led his army to continue to pursue Liu Er and Kong Peng. However, after chasing Liu Er and Kong Peng for thirty miles, they were hit by an ambush set by Zhang Ren and Shen Shiqi in a valley, and lost hundreds of fine cavalry and soldiers. Thousands of infantry had to retreat.
After Wu Qi learned about Yang Jian's ambush, he immediately told Li Jing: "Zhang Ren's ambush has been sent out. There can be no ambush after the ambush. If we send another army to pursue him at this time, we will definitely win a complete victory."
Li Jing nodded in agreement, and then appointed Wu Qi as a general, brought Gongsun Xuanyuan and Yang Ren under his command, and led an army of five thousand to continue the pursuit.
Shen Shiqi did not expect that after Yang Jian and Long Qie, there would be a third pursuing army. As a result, Wu Qi caught him unawares and lost all 5,000 ambushes.
In this way, Li Jing attacked Yangping Pass for more than a month and suffered nearly 30,000 casualties. However, he failed to break Yangping Pass, but he broke through the city within two days after completing the food burning and psychological attack.
