After Song Jingang captured Jinzhou and Jiangzhou, all the areas north of Jinzhou, except Xihe City in Haozhou, were occupied by Liu Wuzhou. Only the isolated city of Xihe was still in the hands of the Tang Dynasty. Xihe City was originally located in the north, close to Liu Wuzhou's original territory. At this time, it was far behind the enemy. It was like an isolated island in the vast ocean, ready to withstand the violent attacks of rough waves and violent storms at any time.
Liu Gan, the governor of Haozhou, knew that Liu Wuzhou would send troops to attack Xihe City sooner or later, so he took the time to prepare to defend the city. He sent people to post notices to collect money and grain, recruit young men, sent people to nearby towns and villages to buy grain, replenished the warehouses, and organized young men to go to the Western Mountains to mine stones and cut down trees to use as materials for defending the city. In short, the preparations for the defense of Xihe City are proceeding in an intensive and orderly manner.
On this day, Liu Fan was convening all the officials in the government office hall to discuss the matter of defending the city. A subordinate hurriedly walked in and said with cupped hands: "Master Governor, according to the scouts, Liu Wuzhou led 30,000 troops to attack Xihe. The city is currently less than fifty miles away from Xihe City."
When the officials heard this, they were shocked. Everyone was whispering and talking, and the hall became boiling and noisy like water boiling.
Liu Gan also frowned, feeling worried. Although he expected that Liu Wuzhou would send troops to attack Xihe City, he did not expect that he would personally lead an army of 30,000 people. It seemed that Liu Wuzhou was determined to win Xihe City. Xihe City originally had 3,000 soldiers, and with the more than 1,000 troops brought by the marching general Li Zhongwen, it was only 4,000 troops. Seven to one, the difference in strength is too great, the situation is not optimistic.
Liu Gan looked around the lobby, tapped the table with the gavel tree to quiet the officials, and then said loudly: "Liu Wuzhou personally led the army to attack Xihe City. The situation is indeed critical. If your colleagues have any suggestions, you may as well speak up. Don’t shy away from it.”
As soon as he finished speaking, an official with a long beard stood up and said with cupped hands: "Master Governor, Liu Wuzhou's troops are too strong. We are outnumbered and the enemy is outnumbered. It will be difficult to hold on to Xihe City. It is better to abandon the city and move the army. Officials and family members dispersed to the Guanzhong area to preserve their strength and make plans in the future." His words won the approval of many civil servants, and they all echoed his words.
At this time, Li Zhongwen stood up, clasped his fists and said: "Master Liu, Xihe City is the capital of Haozhou. It has a large population and a very important geographical location. We must not give up lightly. Hedong is the place where the Tang Dynasty's royal industry arose, and the emperor will never abandon it. Regardless, we will definitely send troops to recover it. If we hold on to Xihe City, we can contain Liu Wuzhou's troops. If we abandon the city and disperse to the west, Liu Wuzhou will capture Xihe City without fighting. From now on, he will have no worries. It will be disadvantageous for the Tang Dynasty to regain the lost territory. Please think twice. ." His words were praised by many generals, and they all nodded in agreement.
In the lobby, the civil servants and military generals were noisy and arguing. Finally, they all turned their attention to Liu Fan, waiting for his final decision. Liu Gan pondered for a long time and then said: "As a minister of the Tang Dynasty, I have the responsibility to defend the territory. Although we are trapped behind enemy lines and isolated and helpless, Xihe City must not give up! To defend the city, military orders must be unified. Therefore, I decided that within the city All troops and horses are uniformly dispatched by Li Zhongwen, the general manager of the march. Sima Huangqi, as the deputy general, assists General Li in commanding. Officials at other levels must fulfill their duties to ensure the supply of food, grass and materials for the soldiers defending the city. If there is anyone who neglects his duties, he will be punished. Will be severely punished without mercy!..."
Liu Gan handed over the important responsibility of defending the city to Li Zhongwen, and Li Zhongwen felt deeply that he had a heavy responsibility. After leaving the governor's mansion, he and Huang Qi immediately climbed onto the city wall to inspect the city's defenses. Xihe is a large city. The city wall is forty miles in circumference, three feet high and four feet two feet wide. It is magnificent. Since the arrangements had been made long ago, many soldiers on the city wall were busy. Some of them were repairing the city wall, and some were carrying various supplies. There was a busy scene everywhere.
After Li Zhongwen and Huang Qi patrolled for half a day, a scout came up from the Dengdao Road and came closer to report: "General Li, Liu Wu and Zhou's army are still thirty miles away from Xihe City. They divided their troops into two groups, pointing to the south and north of the city respectively."
Li Zhongwen nodded and said, "I understand." After the scout left, he turned to Huang Qi and said: "Huang Sima, I have carefully surveyed the terrain around Xihe City. The Hongjiao Beach five miles north of the city is surrounded by mountains on one side and water on the other. It is a choke point that the enemy must pass through. We You can send a group of men and horses to ambush on the mountain, and wait for the enemy army to pass by, and rush down to kill it. The enemy soldiers are so numerous that they will be arrogant and underestimate the enemy. They will never think that we will take the initiative to attack. If we kill them by surprise, we can Depress the enemy's energy and delay their attack on the city." Upon hearing this, Huang Qi immediately nodded in agreement.
At five o'clock that night, Li Zhongwen led two thousand soldiers out of the city and lurked in the forest next to Hongjiao Beach. At midnight the next day, a large group of enemy troops appeared. Flags and flags were fluttering on the official road, armor was shining, and the line stretched for more than ten miles, with no end in sight.
When the enemy's leading troops passed under the hillside, Li Zhongwen ordered the war drums to be beaten and led two thousand soldiers to rush down the mountain. The enemy was caught off guard and was temporarily disorganized. The soldiers of the Tang Army rushed into the enemy formation, and the two sides launched a desperate fight.
Under the fierce attack of the Tang army, the enemy's leading troops could not hold up and had to retreat. Suddenly, the enemy's large groups were crowded, trampling on each other, and making a mess. By the time they had stabilized their position and were about to challenge the Tang army for a decisive battle, Li Zhongwen had already gathered his troops, left the battlefield, and returned to Xihe City.
On that day, Liu Wuzhou's 30,000 troops all arrived at the foot of Xihe City, set up camp, and surrounded Xihe City. Li Zhongwen stood on the city wall, holding the stack of dishes in his hand, and looked far into the distance. He saw the enemy's camps one after another, full of pits and valleys, so densely packed that they could not be seen to the end, which was horrifying and frightening.
Liu Wuzhou was fully prepared to attack Xihe City this time. He brought many siege equipment, such as cannons, cloud chariots, crash carts, etc. The cannon is a trebuchet, which is huge and can throw a fifty-jun boulder onto the city wall a hundred feet away. The cloud cart is a tall wooden tower on which two hundred soldiers can stand. It is equipped with wheels at the bottom and can be pushed to the side of the city wall, allowing the soldiers to quickly climb the city wall. The car crash was a huge log loaded on many small carts, with the top of the wood wrapped in iron sheets, used to hit the city gate.
The next day, as soon as the sun rose, Liu Wuzhou's army began to attack the city. Li Zhongwen stood on the top of the city and saw flags fluttering below the city, drums beating loudly, and countless soldiers shouting and charging over. Carrying the ladder on their shoulders, they rushed to the city to set up the ladder and began to climb up. Some of the soldiers on the city fired arrows, and some lifted stones and logs to smash them down. The enemy who was halfway up was hit and fell from the ladder screaming.
The enemy's cannon began to fire, and countless huge rocks flew towards the city. One of them landed two feet away from Li Zhongwen, hitting two soldiers. Their flesh and blood immediately flew everywhere, and the soldiers were smashed into meat paste. Blood and flesh spattered Li Zhongwen's face. He didn't bother to wipe his face and shouted to direct the battle. Several enemy soldiers climbed up the city wall and fought with the Tang army. More and more enemies were climbing up the city wall, and the situation was extremely critical. Li Zhongwen led a group of soldiers to rush over, started hand-to-hand combat with the enemy troops, and finally eliminated the enemies who climbed up the city wall and blocked the gap.
It was not until sunset that the enemy stopped attacking the city. The day's fighting was over, and Xihe City, which was shaking in the brutal fighting, finally calmed down. Li Zhongwen led several soldiers to patrol the city. Everywhere they went, there was a mess. Many places were damaged by boulders. Soldiers were lying or sitting. Some seriously injured soldiers screamed in pain.
Li Zhongwen and Huang Qi each had their own division of labor. He was responsible for the city defense from the east gate to the west gate. He roughly estimated that the casualties among the soldiers in his defense area accounted for about one-third, and this was only the first day, and more intense fighting was yet to come. If this continues, how long can we sustain it? Thinking about this, he couldn't help but feel very worried.
At this time, he saw Liu Fan leading many people up the city along the Deng Road. There were strong men, women and old people in the team. As soon as the strong men came up, they began to repair the city wall, and the women and old people brought meals. They distributed meals to the soldiers, and some women also bandaged the wounds of the wounded and fed them. Seeing all this, Li Zhongwen felt a little relieved.
He found Liu Gan coming towards him, and hurriedly greeted him, clasping his fists and saying, "Master Liu." Liu Gan returned the courtesy and said, "General Li, how is the situation?"
"It's not bad, but there are a few more casualties among the soldiers."
Liu Gan nodded and said: "Starting today and tomorrow, I will recruit the young and middle-aged men in the city to help you defend the city."
The next day, the enemy launched a cloud chariot to attack the city. This kind of cloud chariot is huge and filled with elite soldiers. It is pushed by many soldiers and moves towards the city wall. Li Zhongwen ordered the soldiers to shoot arrows at the enemies pushing the carts, but the enemies blocked them with shields and could not effectively kill the enemies, and could not stop the movement of the carts. The cloud chariot is slightly higher than the city wall. Once it gets close to the city wall, the soldiers above will jump down and fight for the top of the city.
Yun Che slowly came closer, and Li Zhongwen was so anxious that beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. At this time, he accidentally turned his head and saw Liu Fan leading a group of strong men to the top of the city. The strong men carried three three-foot-long wooden poles with a bowl-shaped mouth. Two wooden poles were equipped with iron hooks on the front end, and the other wooden pole was equipped with an iron cage on the front end. Li Zhongwen didn't know what these wooden poles were used for.
Liu Fan directed the strong men to stretch out the two wooden poles with iron hooks and hooked the cloud cart. This kind of iron hook is specially made with a hidden lock on it. Once it is hooked, it is locked and the cloud cart can neither move forward nor retreat. There is a brazier in the iron cage at the front end of another wooden pole, with blazing flames stretched out to burn the cloud car. After a while, the cloud car was ignited and burst into flames. The soldiers on the cloud car were on fire, and they screamed in agony as they were burned. Some soldiers could not bear the scorching flames and jumped from the cloud carriage several feet high. They were in terrible condition.
Li Zhongwen walked to Liu Fan and said happily: "Master Liu, your method is really good!" Liu Fan smiled and nodded: "I expected that the enemy would use cloud carts, so I summoned craftsmen and rushed to make a batch of these. The defensive equipment seems to be working well.”
The enemy used cloud chariots to attack the city but failed, so they used crash chariots to hit the city gates. The city gate was gradually damaged by the violent impact of the hitting wood, and would soon burst. Liu Gan took command and ordered the buildings near the city gate to be demolished and the city gate to be reinforced with wood. Later, the enemy poured oil on the city gate and set it on fire. Liu Gan simply had people use stones, bricks, and soil to completely block the city gate...
The battle to defend Xihe City lasted for more than two months. At the height of the battle, enemies attacked the city from all directions day and night. The brutality of the battle was indescribable.
Li Zhongwen had been on the city for more than two months. He wore armor whether he was eating or sleeping. If he was injured, he would bandage it and then continue to direct the battle. The soldiers were even more exhausted, and almost everyone was injured. What's more serious is that there are only a thousand soldiers left in the city, they have run out of arrows, stones, logs, etc. have long been used up. The houses near the city wall have almost been demolished. Many people have been sleeping on the streets and can no longer be demolished. house. However, if they don't demolish the houses, what can they do to prevent the enemy from attacking the city?
In the evening, when Liu Fan went to the city for inspection, Li Zhongwen told him about the difficulty. Liu Fan was silent for a moment and said: "When the people in the city celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, they leave a lot of old mugwort in their homes. If we tie the mugwort into handfuls, pour grease on it, and throw it down the city, we can burn the enemy to death." After hearing this, Li Zhongwen’s eyes lit up and he quickly said let’s try it.
The next day, a large amount of mugwort was transported to the top of the city, tied into bundles, poured with grease, and then thrown down when the enemy attacked the city. Sure enough, the enemy was burned to the point of roaring and had to retreat.
That night, Li Zhongwen accompanied Liu Gan on a tour of the city. The two of them walked to a battlement and stood there, looking into the distance. There is half a bright moon hanging in the sky, and a few stars are shining. On the cruel battlefield, it is really a great happiness to be able to enjoy the tranquility of this night.
The dim light of the stars and moon shone on the enemy's tent under the city. Li Zhongwen pointed with his hand and said: "Master Liu, after several days of observation, I found that Liu Wuzhou's Chinese army tent is next to the woods in the southeast. I plan to Tomorrow night we will lead five hundred soldiers out of the city and attack his camp."
"The city gate has been blocked, how do you get out of the city?"
"Use a rope."
"Okay, Liu Wuzhou never expected that we could take the initiative at this moment and catch him by surprise."
At three o'clock the next night, Liu Wuzhou was sleeping soundly in his tent when he was suddenly awakened by a loud noise. He got up in a hurry, and a guard broke into the tent and said in panic: "Your Majesty, it's bad, the Tang army is coming to kill you!"
Liu Wuzhou didn't bother to put on his armor and immediately ran out of the tent and evacuated under the protection of several guards. At this time, a group of Tang troops rushed towards them. When Liu Wu saw them on Monday, he turned around and ran away. A man also rushed over from the opposite side, with a knife in his pocket. Fortunately, he dodged quickly, otherwise his head would have been sliced open. Even so, he still received a stab on his shoulder. The guards rushed forward, killed the Tang soldier, and protected him from hurriedly fleeing...
Liu Wuzhou's Chinese army tent was attacked by surprise, and several of his close generals were killed. Liu Wuzhou himself was injured and had to return to Mayi to recuperate, and handed over the command to his general Huang Ziying. After Liu Wuzhou left, the enemy's offensive weakened significantly. Four months later, Song Jingang, who was confronting his second brother in Baibi, was in a disadvantageous situation. Liu Wuzhou ordered Huang Ziying to lead his army to support him.
Liu Wuzhou's army withdrew, and the battle to defend Xihe City finally achieved final victory.
