When the sky in the east showed a hint of fish-belly white, Wenpin, covered in blood, rushed into the Shiyangcheng County Government Office. Next to him was Zhang Liao, whose armor was also stained with blood.
It took them a whole night to get here.
Yesterday evening, Guan Yu's defenders retreated back to the city wall. In the absence of arrows and supplies, Guan Yu, Guan Ping, Liao Hua and other generals took up positions in the city and prepared to fight again the next day.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Liao did not give them a chance to breathe.
As a general, Zhang Liao believed that his army could wait for work and attack the city at night.
So, his flagship, the building ship, directly pressed up.
When the shadow, which was taller than the ten-foot-tall wall of Shiyang City, approached the city wall, the defenders felt nothing but despair.
Guan Yu said: "Shiyang City is the gateway to Jiangxia. Xuande has been raising troops for six years. Today is the day when we die for our righteousness!"
The soldiers guarding the city cheered up and fought with Zhang Liao's troops.
Zhang Liao's troops took turns shooting arrows, and the soldiers attacked the city under the cover of arrows. Soon some people climbed to the top of the city, but were killed by Guan Ping and others.
Zhang Liao made a quick decision and ordered his people to move the boat directly to the city wall.
With a loud "dang" sound, the gang of Louchuan hit the city wall and scattered a circle of bamboo rafts belonging to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Wenpin jumped up from the water and climbed onto the boat. Without greeting Zhang Liao, he turned around and climbed up the city wall.
Zhang Liao was aroused when he saw that this fierce general with a terrible wound on his back could still fight, and he kept shooting arrows to cover Wenpin.
Wenpin climbed onto the tower several times and was forced to jump back into the water several times.
The Jijiang River water, which was already dyed red, looked like a dye vat.
Under such an offensive, the city defenders still held on for a full hour. When Zhang He's troops arrived at the junction of Han River and Jianshui River and fresh troops joined the battlefield, the city defenders showed a tendency to be unable to hold on.
Zhang He followed suit and pushed the building boat onto the city head on the other side of the Han River.
The two armies attacked the city from two directions, and Guan Yu's army could not look at each other.
An ordinary general would have been helpless, but Guan Yu was different.
He ordered his troops to retreat in an orderly manner. During the retreat, he lit the wood on the city head, and then used the streets and houses in the city as a basis to start street battles with the enemy.
Zhang Liao and Wenpin entered the city and discovered that the streets in the city had already been lined with barriers and mounds of earth, and various fortifications had been built.
Guan Yu held the Qinglong Yanyue Sword and rode a red rabbit horse. He stood behind the fortifications and looked at the two of them coldly.
Zhang Liao said: "Guan Yunchang deserves to be a famous general in the world, and he is by no means the bravest of an ordinary man. Decisively abandoning the city wall this time has four advantages. First, it makes us lose the advantage of using buildings and ships as ladders. Second, he has already prepared defenses in the city and reduced the size of the city. The defense area was eliminated, and the advantage of our army being attacked from both sides was eliminated. The third was that our army's disadvantage of not having horses on board the ship and being unable to launch a charge was magnified. The most important thing is that when they retreated, they set the city on fire, and our army was backed by The top of the city is extremely conspicuous at night, but they are in the dark and have the upper hand."
Wenpin nodded, admiring Guan Yu in his heart. At the same time, he glanced at Zhang Liogao, who was analyzing things soundly.
When Cao Cao surrendered, Wenpin was the last to arrive among the generals in Jingzhou, and he had met Zhang Liao at that time.
When he was released as the governor of Jiangxia and was ordered to be the vanguard to attack Shiyang City, he looked forward to the arrival of Zhang Liao and the other seven armies day and night.
However, when the Seventh Army arrived, most of the soldiers under his command were dead, and they were really losing both men and formation.
He thought for a while and said: "As long as we abandon the city wall, there will be no way out. Since Guan Yunchang is determined to die, General Zhang, please lend me a horse, and I will be the first to charge!"
Zhang Liao looked at him and said, "Prefect Wen, I am also a surrendered general."
He didn't say any more, but pressed his arms down, and immediately, the cheering soldiers rushed forward.
There was a fierce battle here, and Zhang He's troops also killed the city wall over there. They also encountered street fighting offensives. Guan Ping and Liao Hua led their troops to resist them desperately.
This killing took another full hour.
The corpses of soldiers were piled up and down outside Juma, and every thorn on Juma was stained with blood.
Guan Yu still stood behind the horse with his sword drawn horizontally, but for an hour, he failed to break through his first line of defense.
Wenpin led the charge for the seventh time, but was killed again and retreated. His sword was so sharp that it curled.
He wiped the blood from his face and asked, "How?"
Zhang Liao roughly estimated that from the time he landed on the city to now, he had lost almost half of the soldiers he brought with him by boat. At least a thousand people died, and another five to six hundred people lost their fighting power.
However, the opponent's morale is still high, and I don't know why they are fighting.
Could it be that the four words "kuangfuhanshi" really have such magic power?
Zhang Liao, who was born in a remote area of Bingzhou, did not understand these obsessions. He only knew that to be loyal to his lord, he should do his best.
"continue!"
Zhang Liao waved his arm, and the eighth wave of charges began.
This time, they were halfway through the rush when they heard shouts from the street next to them.
It turned out that at this hour, Lu Zhaobu also arrived on the battlefield. As a general who had made a mistake, his troops held their breath and rushed directly to the street fighting position as soon as they boarded the city.
Guanqiu Jian led a thousand Qingzhou soldiers, bypassed several main battlefields, and started attacking from the Guanping Department, which was the most exhausted among the defenders.
Guan Qiujian's troops were all trained by him. They were extremely elite. Some were paving the way with arrows, while others were charging ahead. They actually broke through the defenses guarded by Guan Ping in a single charge.
It was from this moment on that the defenders were truly defeated.
Seeing that the street next door had been lost, Liao Hua had no choice but to withdraw his troops. During the retreat, he rescued Guan Ping and escaped from the city through the north gate.
Guan Yu is alone and unable to support himself. Although his side has not yet been lost, if the next door is lost, he can use his escape route.
So he simply rode back and rushed into Zhang Liao and Wenpin's formation.
Because Zhang Liao, Zhang He, and Lu Zhao all came by boat and were all infantry without horses, Guan Yu was like a wolf rushing into a flock of sheep, like a god, he cut through the troops and went to the west gate.
When the enemy army was almost completely wiped out, Wenpin was the first to enter the Shiyang County Government Office.
As soon as he entered the door, he saw several people hanging in the county government office, both men and women, who looked like they had just died.
Zhang Liao also followed, frowning and saying, "Who is this?"
Wenpin, who was a general in Jingzhou, sighed and said: "It was Gao Le, the magistrate of Shiyang County, who seemed to be Huang Zu's in-law. Maybe because Shiyang couldn't hold on, the whole family committed suicide."
Zhang Liao was silent for a long time, and finally said: "Let's bury him."
The two walked out of the county government office, only to see that the streets were full of blood. The corpses of Shiyang defenders and attackers were lying on every street corner. The entire Shiyang city was like a purgatory on earth.
Zhang Liao only glanced at it and ordered the soldiers to take Wen Pin to rest. He lowered his head and mounted his horse to join Zhang He and Lu Zhao.
Only then did Wenpin feel that his whole body had lost all strength, and he lay down directly at the door of the county government office, unwilling to move a step further.
Another hour later, Zhao Yan came to Shiyang City. He gathered several generals together and counted the gains and losses.
In this battle, 3,000 people from the Wenpin Department attacked the city first, killing more than 1,800 people and injuring more than 900 people. Some of the wounded were rescued after falling into the water, some were rescued on bamboo rafts, and two others were rescued. More than a hundred people were missing and were probably buried at the bottom of the river.
Then came Zhang Liao's troops, with more than 2,100 dead and more than 600 injured. At that time, there were about 3,500 troops on various ships to attack the city, but now there are only 800 left.
Zhang He's and Lu Zhao's troops arrived later, and fewer people died. Zhang He's troops also suffered 1,100 deaths, while Lu Zhao's suffered 300 deaths.
However, counting the corpses, it was found that Guan Yu's defenders only had more than a thousand corpses in total!
Zhang Liao said sadly: "Such a victory is really nothing to be proud of."
Zhang He nodded in agreement: "With a thousand defenders achieving such a record, Guan Yunchang is really a god."
Zhao Yan said: "Generals, there is no need to belittle yourselves. This is our first battle. There will be two more counties to reach Xiakou. In the future, the prime minister will reward you for your merits. You all have merit!"
So the meritorious deeds were announced. Zhang Liao's troops were the first to scale the city wall, and Lu Zhao's troops were the first to attack the streets. Each of them recorded their attacks, and the rest were recorded according to the number of kills and casualties each department had.
Zhao Yan was surprised to see Guan Qiujian's name again, thinking that Cao Wu had recommended this person, he couldn't help but be a little more distracted.
By the time all statistics were completed, it was already noon. He circulated the battle report to the Seventh Army, then wrote it and sent it to Cao Cao's main force.
At this time, Cao Cao's main force was still marching at a slow pace, but after several days of marching, it had already covered half the distance. In another half of the time, it would be able to follow the river to the foot of Xiakou City and join forces with Zhao Yan's Seventh Army.
The news that came at the same time as the destruction of Shiyang City was also the news that the scouts on the river finally discovered the traces of the Jiangdong Army's scouts.
