Besides, after the Battle of Jingshui, the Liang people built a cruel Jingguan under the city, and threw the heads, ears, tongues, and eyes of the refugees into Gaoling City, so that the prisoners of the Battle of Jingshui declared under the city that Chang'an North The army came in full force, but returned in defeat, losing nearly ten thousand people. Gaoling had completely become an isolated city, and there was no way to save it.
This put great pressure on the sergeants in Gaoling City. When Lu Bu saw this scene, he was silent for a day and walked back and forth on the city defense with a gloomy face, urging the soldiers to continue to defend the city.
It's just that the current situation in Gaoling City is too bad. If you look around the city, you can see a three-foot-high earth mountain within a few dozen steps, which is level with the city wall. There is also a three-foot-high earth mountain built on the earth mountain. In the archery tower, the archers on the archery tower are condescending. While shooting arrows, they also have a clear view of the city. The siege fortifications were so huge that they were like building a city outside the city. The soldiers not only had to be wary of the enemies under the city, but also had to avoid the arrows coming from their heads. They all complained endlessly. As the saying goes, it is difficult to attack a city and easy to defend it. , but the current situation seems that it is not Lu Bu who is defending the city, but the Liang people outside the city.
Another day passed, and today's attack by the Liang people was barely repelled. However, the outer part of Gaoling has basically fallen, and the main city has been broken through several times. Lu Bu led the trapped camp to put out fires everywhere. Even as brave as him, this time I also felt quite tired. After dinner, Chief Shi Weilan reported today's casualties to Lu Bu. In summary, more than 300 people died today and more than 600 were injured. The casualties are actually acceptable, but the impact on morale is fatal. If this continues If this continues, I am afraid that as long as we hold on for another six days, the morale of the army will be on the verge of collapse.
Lu Bu thought for a while, held his usual daily military meeting, and expressed his thoughts: "I plan to break out of the encirclement the next day. What do you think?"
Gao Shun was a loyal man. When he heard this, he showed hesitation and said: "Although we have lost the outer wall, there is still Wengcheng in the city. If we want to hold on, we can still hold on in ten days. Is it too early to break out the next day?" some."
Cao Xingze said: "If you enter Wengcheng, you won't be able to escape even if you want to. What the general said is right. If you still have the strength to break out and return to the capital, you can still rely on the huge defenses of Xijing to hold on. But if it takes a few days, We are forced into a barbican, and even if we want to break out, there is no way out."
Lu Bu actually didn't expect this level. He just said this because he was fighting hard for many days and facing the siege. And when he said the words of breaking out, he was actually a little ashamed in his heart, as if his bravery was nothing but duckweed on the water, and the scars on his face were aching. But when he heard what Cao Xing said, he felt relieved again, He said to everyone: "That's it. It's just that I don't have a good idea on how to act." As he spoke, the breakout was decided.
So everyone came up with suggestions one after another, and the main opinions were summarized, which was to quickly break out of the encirclement from the west at dawn, when the Liang people were about to wake up. But Zhang Liao thought about what he saw and heard during the day and said: "During the day, Lianggou almost broke through the city several times, but they all came from the west. It can be seen that no matter whether the rescue was successful or not, Lianggou was already on guard in the west. We are leaving the city from the west and have no intention of falling into a trap."
These words were really insightful, and they immediately convinced everyone, so they changed the plan. They discussed it and felt that Zhang Ji's tribe in the south was the weakest, and to the south was the Weishui River. Generally speaking, going to the water is asking for death, and you can often survive in the mountains and wilderness of Shangjun in the north. However, there are many locals in the army who know that there is a shoal in the Weishui River, which can be crossed on foot without a boat, and Liang people are determined unknown.
Finally, it was Zhang Liao who came up with the idea again: "Although we don't plan to break out from the west, we can make a show of opening the west gate first and pretend to go out from here. When Liang Gou mobilizes heavy troops, we will go out through the south gate. They How can I be on guard against it?"
Everyone clapped and applauded, and Lu Bu smiled at him and said, "Okay Wen Yuan, I didn't expect that your knowledge has improved so quickly!"
One night passed, and the next day, Gaoling's garrison continued to resist as usual, but secretly, Lu Bu observed the Liang people's layout on each section of the city wall during patrol time, and personally informed his subordinates of the news of tomorrow's breakout, so as not to be alerted by the Liang people. They also arrange their rotations early, especially to allow the cavalry to rest during the day. They are the vanguard of the breakout, and whether they can succeed or not actually depends on them.
At the same time, Jia Xu was observing the situation of defending the city from a watchtower on a hill. He keenly discovered that the strength of the Liang people defending the city had changed. It was obvious that the number of defenders had decreased slightly, but all the soldiers who defended the city were still there. The spirit is high and the morale has improved significantly. In the case of using tricks to intimidate, there is obviously a problem.
He knew that the garrison in the city was taking action, but he was a little unsure whether to attack the camp at night or break through the siege, so he made a conscious decision and transferred his 10,000 troops from ten thousand years to the army in the east of the city, ready to take action at any time. .
When night fell, Jia Xu climbed up the tower again to look at the city. He saw that Gaoling City was completely dark except for the defenders on the city wall who still held torches. Apparently, they deliberately did not light the fire in order to conceal their actions. Jia Xu had no doubts about Lu Bu's actions and directly ordered his subordinates to eat and prepare for war.
At Yin Shi, there is no moon in the sky and the stars are gradually dimming. No matter how well people prepare, this is the sleepiest time of the day. The Liang people in Gaoling City washed their faces with well water, sobered up for a while, and then took action decisively.
At night, the west gate gradually opened, which alerted the night watch sentries. They blew their horns to wake up the resting soldiers. The cavalry on the mausoleum first formed an array to block the roads leading up and down the mausoleum. However, it was not the cavalry of the defenders who left the city first, but the rolling stones that had caused them great suffering before.
These were the only rolling stones left in the city that had not been used up. There were about twenty pieces left. They were all moved to the west gate by the defenders at night. As soon as the gate was opened, they pried out the gate one by one, turning into a burst of A thunderous roar.
It was dark at night, and the Liang people couldn't see clearly the rolling stones. They could only hear the loud roar. By the time they could see clearly, they had nowhere to escape. Blood and flesh spattered, and many people were crushed to death, including horses and people. Only half of the body of the surviving ones was left, whining and howling in pain, obviously in extreme pain. From this point of view, dying happily is a good thing. Unknown people from the rear formation rushed over and saw a hellish scene. They thought the Liang people in the city had invited ghosts and gods. They cowered for a while and did not dare to move forward. They only called for reinforcements from the north and south.
When the guards in the south saw the Liang people heading west, they quickly blew the horn of attack. The long-awaited soldiers rushed out of the city gate like a loose string, firing arrows. The one who rushed forward was Gao Shun's trapped camp. There were about two hundred of them, all holding torches that bound Song Ming. They threw them all under the watchtower in front of the city gate. They quickly piled up into a pile and burned violently. Soon, like The fire that danced like the wind swallowed up the most important watchtowers, burning them and collapsing them, and the roads on both sides were cleared.
At this time, Gao Shun rode his horse southward, and in a blink of an eye, he had occupied the road to Xialing. Zhang Ji had not yet reacted. There were only about thirty people guarding the road, but Gao Shun rushed forward and collapsed. Gao Shun achieved his initial goal, and the people behind him also swarmed out. The time for them to break out was not long. This situation only lasted about three quarters of an hour, and reinforcements from both sides were about to encircle them.
In this case, even though he had seen the way to escape, Gao Shun turned his horse's head and led the trapped camp straight to the other side, which was Zhang Ji's camp. The Liang people who had just realized the situation just tried to gather together to counterattack , but Gao Shun came faster and rushed directly into the camp. Liang Ren was completely unprepared. He only saw a group of tall horses charging towards him and let them rush in at once. Some Liang people tried to fight back with arrows, and some Liang people moved forward without hesitation, but Gao Shun ignored them all and just walked through the camp with his head down, knocking down all the firelights he could see.
When he fought his way out of the camp, he realized that he had passed through Zhang Ji's entire camp. There was a fire behind him, and there were only less than a hundred riders left behind him. Many familiar people were missing, and Gao Gao Shun himself was hit by dozens of arrows, three of which pierced his flesh, making him feel a dull pain.
However, this also succeeded in attracting the attention of the subsequent main breakout force. When the Liang people who came later saw the flames of Zhang Ji's camp, they thought there was a large group of people rushing in and killed them, so most of them rushed to the camp to rescue them. After going back and forth, nearly 20,000 people in the city had basically broken out of the encirclement and rushed down to the cemetery.
Seeing that there was no need to restrain him, Gao Shun immediately led the remaining elite cavalry to join Lu Bu. Lu Bu led the army at the front. When he saw Gao Shun, he laughed and said: "A good man can fight between a dragon and a tiger!".
Looking back at Gaoling, the Liang people were in chaos below the city, with people shouting and neighing everywhere. Order could not be restored in a short time, and they did not dare to pursue forward. This made Lu Bu, who had suffered for several days, very happy. He also promised Gao Shun: "When I return to Xijing, I will definitely ask Situ for two thousand dan for you!"
After saying that, they marched south quickly, and twenty miles to the southeast was the shore they were looking for. In the blink of an eye, it was Chenshi, but to their surprise, they rushed to the shore of the Weishui River, but did not find the shoal the soldiers mentioned.
Before I could have a detailed argument with others, the rear team suddenly came to report that Liang Ren had already arrived!
Why did it come so fast? This idea flashed through everyone's mind, but it was too late to think about it at this time. They asked them to turn their horses' heads and face a life-or-death showdown with Liang Ren who was several times their enemy. Bite the bullet and cross the river!
Lu Bu rode Red Rabbit into the Weishui River first. The water reached Red Rabbit's back. But for a horse like Red Rabbit, wading through the water was nothing more than easy. After a few leaps, he actually crossed the nearly 100-foot-wide river. Wei River.
But for the other knights, this was very laborious. They could only throw away the armor on their bodies and barely let their mounts relax, so as not to let the water submerge their heads and float up and down in the undulating waves. The ordinary soldiers were even more miserable. They paddled their arms in the water, as if they were embracing something, and yet they seemed to be throwing something away. A wave came over and covered some people's heads, smoothing them out.
Jia Xu led his men to watch this scene, wondering how many people had disappeared forever. As a result, most of the people were unwilling to wade across the river, seeing that it was too dangerous to cross the river. Instead, they chose to gather in a group on the north bank, at a loss.
He laughed and said: "Before the heavy rain, if there are shoals, it would be a bad idea to break out to the south. But after the heavy rain, it would be too natural to try to escape through the water. However, this saves me some effort." Having said this, , Jia Xu's smile turned cold, and he issued an order to his subordinates: "Send the order, since they want to cross the river, let them do it. Those who don't want to cross the river will be made into mud under the horses' hooves!"
Liangqi under his command responded like a cloud.
In this battle, the combined army was severely defeated. Lu Bu suffered losses of over ten thousand. He only led more than a thousand men to escape back to Chang'an. Countless people drowned in the Wei River or were trampled to death by horse hooves.
On the fifth day of August, the Liang army came to Chang'an.
