The Zhenjiang Army decisively gave up its defense line and evacuated Liangzhou, causing the Turks' plan to encircle them completely in vain. After Ashina Zhijin learned about this, he couldn't help but feel disappointed.
He didn't expect that Xu Youchang would be so clever. He had withstood Ronya's fierce offensive for nearly a month. He had clearly stabilized his position, but he actually left at the drop of a hat and jumped out of the encirclement he had carefully set up. .
Just like the firefox on the grassland, with its extremely sensitive sense of smell, it smelled the scent of the intersecting troops in advance.
However, if we don’t retain the people, it would be okay if we can capture Liangzhou.
This is also of great significance to the morale of the Turks.
Ashina Zhijin specially sent envoys to the front line to commend the meritorious soldiers, including the Temple Prince Ronya, and encouraged them to continue fighting bravely and strive to recapture Zijin Pass and Shengyuguan as soon as possible.
You must know that these two places are important checkpoints behind the Turks, and are the choke points connecting the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang and even the Western Continent. Taking it into our hands is equivalent to opening up the energy of the Turkic Eastern Expedition Army. Soldiers and materials will be continuously replenished, and the initiative of the entire war will be once again controlled by Ashina Zhijin.
Instead, the Turks would be slowly choked until they suffocated to death.
Now that Liangzhou has been occupied again, there is an advanced base for attacking Zijin Pass. The next step is Zijin Pass!
Ashina Zhijin asked someone to tell Ronya that the opportunity to attack Zijin Pass was actually very short. On the one hand, Li Jiangyao must be desperately mobilizing troops and generals to strengthen defense forces at this time. The longer the delay, the harder it will be to defeat Zijin Pass; on the other hand, He Lianxiong's troops defended Wuguan, and as Jing Xiang With the arrival of the main force of the army, the battle will inevitably become more and more intense, and Li Bing has recently shown signs of counterattack. It is difficult to predict how long the King of Huaiyang can hold him back.
Once the war situation in the east becomes unfavorable to the Turks, the strategic opportunity to storm Zijin Pass will basically end.
By that time, they will truly face the dilemma of being attacked from both sides.
In view of this, Ashina Zhijin assigned the Shenying Clan and Ghost Dou Clan troops responsible for the outflanking mission to Roniya's command. At the same time, an additional 100,000 Western Xinjiang affiliated troops were sent to support, plus the original Turkic troops. Soldiers and horses, the number of troops in the hands of Temple Prince Ronya increased to 300,000.
This kind of power is almost enough to attack the Holy Tang Imperial Capital, let alone a small pass fortress.
Ronya deeply felt the great responsibility on her shoulders and did not dare to slack off at all. While mobilizing troops and horses to advance steadily towards Zijin Pass, he adopted Prince Tanley's suggestion and concentrated resources on manufacturing various siege equipment.
Within half a month, twenty giant nest vehicles, eighty long-range trebuchets, one hundred and ten ladders, plus five extremely sturdy city assault vehicles were all delivered.
If someone who didn't know the situation looked at it at first glance, they would think that this was not a Turkic army, but the Shengtang Army attacking Wuguan.
Facing the enemy troops approaching the city and determined to win, Zijin Pass also made full efforts to make all preparations.
Three hundred large trebuchets, larger in size and with longer range, were lined up in Zijin Pass, with stone bombs and kerosene bombs piled as high as a hill next to them. Thirty or forty bucket trucks pulled by iron chains and equipped with slide rails below can quickly transport more ammunition from the rear warehouse to the trebuchet at any time.
One hundred and fifty giant crossbows covered the city head of Zijin Pass. The large crossbow arrows, which are like javelins, are placed in bundles behind the base of the giant crossbow, and the arrow edges shine with a dazzling light.
On the ground in front of Zijin Pass, three trenches have been dug by the Zhenjiang Army. Each trench is four meters wide and two meters deep. The bottom of the trench is filled with sharp wooden stakes. Regardless of whether soldiers or horses fall in, they will die. undoubtedly.
And the most exaggerated thing is the city wall.
As the western gateway of Shengtang, Zijin Pass has always been defensive from the west but not from the east. Therefore, the wall on the east side of the fortress has always had a problem of insufficient defense. In order to resist the Turks' counterattack, the Zhenjiang Army gave full play to the spirit of "either do nothing or do nothing" and built a higher and thicker wall on the basis of the original city wall on the east.
This city wall is entirely made of three-foot-long large bluestone strips, with rammed earth as the base and rice slurry as glue, making it unreasonably strong.
It includes eight arrow towers and two city gates, completely in accordance with the standards of the imperial capital city.
Just the money spent to build this new city wall made Li Jiangyao secretly feel distressed for several days.
In addition, the defensive strength of Zijin Pass is unprecedented.
Zhenjiang's First Army, Third Army, Fifth Army, Sixth Army and Seventh Army, with 200,000 main troops, gathered at Zijin Pass, quite imposing for a decisive battle.
Of course, Li Jiangyao not only kept an eye on Zijin Pass, he also did not relax at all about Shengyuguan in the south.
The city wall fortifications were reinforced and large-scale combat equipment was added. All actions were treated the same as at Zijin Pass. At the same time, the Second Army and the Fourth Army of Zhenjiang were mobilized. One hundred thousand soldiers and horses were in full formation, waiting for the Turks to appear in front of Shengyuguan at any time.
"Daduhu, with this level of preparation, let alone Roniya, even if Ashina Zhijin Yujia goes to the army himself, he won't get any benefits." Turkgma Khan stood on the top of Zijin Pass and flattered him. road.
Li Jiang looked at the looming flag on the eastern horizon and said in a deep voice: "Gema Khan, do you know how many people I have been mentally prepared to sacrifice this time?"
Ge Ma was slightly startled: "Um...how much?"
"At least one hundred thousand, or... one hundred and fifty thousand." Li Jiangyao frowned.
Gema was surprised: "So many?! You...are you planning to fill in half of the Xinjiang Army?"
Li Jiangyao nodded slightly: "The prerequisite is that Zijin Pass can be defended. If we cannot defend this place, the entire Zhenjiang Army will have to move in."
Gema secretly lamented that Li Jiangyao was ruthless, and asked at the same time: "Defender, I wonder why you asked me to come here. Do you need the help of the Yakut Army?"
Li Jiangyao smiled when he heard this: "That's not necessary. I promised you back then that I would leave some seeds for the Yelun Clan..."
"Great Protector, now and then," Gema said sincerely: "Since you showed mercy and forgiveness, the Zhenjiang Army has been very good to us. Not only has there been no humiliation or abuse, but it has also tried its best to ensure our living supplies. To be honest, I The soldiers and soldiers of the tribe are very grateful for this. Now that the Ronia army is pressing on the border, if you can win, it means we win. If you lose, we will also be finished. We are already one, and we should share the same hatred and fight side by side. "
Li Jiangyao nodded: "I'm very pleased that you can think so. However, it's really not the time for the Yakut Army to go into battle. I invite you here because I want to use your familiarity with the Turkic Army to help me make suggestions. . By the way... we can also advise the Shenying Clan and the Ghost Dou Clan not to follow Ashina Zhijin all the way to the dark side."
"This is absolutely no problem!" Gema slapped his chest and laughed loudly: "To be honest, the one coming from the opposite side is Ronya. If it is Prince Chili leading the army, I might just pull him over for you. Now, hahaha.”
Li Jiangyao was helpless by his stupid look, shook his head and said: "Then I don't have any hope. Gema Khan, let's just laugh and talk, and we have to hurry up to get down to business. You go and write a few letters now. Write a letter and send your subordinates to secretly send it to the generals of the Divine Eagle Clan and the Ghost Dou Clan to let them know your experience. You don’t have to deliberately persuade them to surrender, you just need to establish contact."
Gema said loudly, "Yes," and then left happily.
Looking at his back, Xu Youchang on the side couldn't help but said: "Jiang Yao, will this be useful? Can the Divine Eagle Clan and Ghost Dou Clan listen to him?"
"It will be useful," Li Jiangyao smiled faintly: "I am not asking the Shenying Clan and the Ghost Dou Clan to switch sides, but I want the Temple Prince to be suspicious of them. Once the seeds of wariness are buried, the Turkic army will no longer be It’s a piece of cake.”
Xu Youchang gave a thumbs up sincerely: "You are still ruthless."
Li Jiangyao turned his head and asked behind him: "Are the representatives from Western Xinjiang here?"
"Everyone has arrived," Situ Wushou responded: "According to your Lord's order, all the countries have sent important figures, either prime ministers or princes. Shule Kingdom and Chechi Kingdom are the most serious. Shule Prince Tani and Chechi Kingdom are the most serious. Chi Wang Gehan came here in person."
Yuduoluo on the side continued: "Not only them, the Pope of the Flower God Sect specially ordered four guardian elders to come here, saying that they will fully cooperate with our army's actions."
Li Jiangyao smiled with satisfaction: "Okay, with these people coming forward, the 100,000 Western Xinjiang affiliated troops don't have to worry."
"Should we let them write letters to contact us now?" Situ Wushou asked.
"There is no rush," Li Jiang looked into the distance: "Let Gema play its role first. After the Turks themselves are full of doubts, it will be easier for the people in Western Xinjiang to act."
-
Prince Ronya of the Temple was sitting in the handsome tent with a somewhat solemn look on his face. He swept his gaze across the crowd and said in a deep voice, "Does anyone else want to express their opinion?"
"I don't agree with the second prince's idea."
The person who spoke was Ge Shu Beichuan, the leader of the Ghost Dou clan. He is the younger brother of the leader of the Ghost Dou tribe and the third uncle of Ge Shuxuan. He is brave and good at fighting. He has always been responsible for commanding the troops of the Ghost Dou tribe in overseas battles.
Just listen to him continue to talk: "No matter how strong Zijin Pass is, can it be stronger than the Holy Tang Imperial Capital? Back then, under the leadership of the eldest prince, we fought fiercely for a month and a half. Didn't we trample the Imperial Capital under our feet?"
Tanli sneered when he heard this, and was about to reprimand Geshu Beichuan. Yun Qianxue, who was sitting next to him, was afraid that he would offend someone, so he quickly said: "Master Geshu, the situation in the Imperial Capital is completely incomparable with Zijin Pass. The city defense of the Imperial Capital is Although the fortification looks very powerful, it covers a very large area. Hundreds of thousands of defenders are scattered on the defense line, which is completely diluted. Each battlefield has only a small number of troops. As the attacker, we can attack from all directions. Launch a fierce attack and tire them out."
He paused for a moment and said to Ronya: "Purple Golden Pass is just the opposite. It is built in a dangerous place. Only the east wall faces us. The length of the entire front line is no more than five miles. The siege troops can hardly even attack the city." The shape of the enemy cannot be expanded. Looking at the enemy, there are three trenches, two layers of walls, more than 200,000 troops stationed, and countless large-scale combat equipment and grain and grass supplies..."
"That's enough, Yun Qianxue," Ronya waved her hand: "I'm not asking you if Zijin Pass is difficult to beat, but how to beat it."
