The internal disputes in the Su Kingdom have nothing to do with Li Hao for the time being. The main thing to deal with now is the Anguo army outside the city.
For this reason, Li Hao actively prepared many things such as arrows, rolling stones, wood, hot oil, gold juice, etc., and blocked the city gate with gate-blocking knives and rolling stones.
Anyway, there were few soldiers and horses in the city, and there were no cavalry available, so Li Hao had no intention of leaving the city to fight in the field.
The initiative in the city defense battle was in the hands of the siege force. An army spent three days preparing rams, catapults, and ladders, and officially launched the siege of Hezhou.
The combat method is also very classic. First use catapults to launch a burst of bombardment on the city wall to gain a head start.
Then the rams and ladders approached the city wall, trying to break down the city gate while allowing soldiers to climb onto the city through the ladders.
It was naturally easy for Li Hao to deal with this method. When he saw the catapult, he had already asked the soldiers on the top of the city to retreat.
Only a few people were left to monitor above, and after seeing the ladders and rush cars approaching, they would rush to defend.
It's just that the city gate has been blocked, so there is no need to worry about it.
In the first few days, there were sufficient supplies of hot oil, gold juice, mulberry wood and other materials, but the An army suffered heavy losses and failed to climb the city wall.
But when these things were almost consumed, it was time for the soldiers from both sides to fight head-on.
Among the 4,000 troops in Hezhou City, Li Hao's 200 East Palace Guards and 800 Imperial Guards were the most elite. The remaining 3,000 people were basically local defenders and heavy supplies, and their combat power was slightly better than that of the common people.
But defending the city is not difficult. After two days of fighting, you will become familiar with it.
Therefore, Li Hao separated his thousand men and used them as the backbone to lead the rest.
As for Li Hao himself, he stayed at the east city gate which was under attack. When he got to the back, he would often draw his sword and go forward to deal with the masters who rushed up the city wall.
But even so, by the eighth day, these four thousand troops had lost nearly 600 people.
Fortunately, Wang Kun did a good job and recruited more than 2,000 people from local wealthy families and common people. Even though they had no training, they were able to make up for the lack of numbers.
Of course, compared to the losses inside the city, Anjun's losses would only be greater. According to Li Hao's estimate, at least nearly 4,000 people were lost outside the city.
But relative to the number of An army, these losses would not shake their determination.
However, Li Hao was more confident that even if he was exhausted, he could drag An Jun to death in Hezhou City and wait until Su Guo's reinforcements arrived.
It's just that it's not Li Hao's style to just be beaten in the city and wait for Anjun to retreat when he sees difficulties. He still has to find a way to teach them a profound lesson.
Moreover, Li Hao still has a special force outside, and it's time to show their faces.
For this reason, Li Hao began to make arrangements. After training the novices, he consciously replaced the East Palace guards to give them time to recuperate.
However, as a result, the combat effectiveness on the city wall inevitably declined. It was Li Hao who took out the remaining hot oil and gold juice again to repel the enemy.
For this reason, Wang Kun came to Li Hao specifically, hoping that Li Hao would send people up again.
Li Hao explained warmly: "No, I kept them because I had other plans, and we also need a reserve team who can step up in times of crisis.
There was no arrangement before because there were too few veterans and they were needed to lead the team. Now that the people in front have been trained, it is natural to gather them together. "
Wang Kun asked: "What are your plans?"
Li Hao smiled and said: "It's not confirmed yet. We need to check the situation again. Anyway, my uncle has his heart in his heart. I will protect Anjun from attacking."
At this point, Wang Kun found that he seemed to have to trust Li Hao. After all, judging from his performance, Li Hao was indeed better at commanding troops than he was.
Just as he was about to leave, Chen Xi suddenly walked in with a letterbox containing information.
I was about to say something, but when I saw Wang Kun there, I choked it back.
Li Hao saw this and said, "What's the matter?
That said, my uncle is not an outsider. "
Chen Xi then said: "Just now, a marquis in the city came over and said that General Wu Wei sent a secret message to His Highness through the flying pigeons of the marquis inside and outside.
The slave has just verified the authenticity, and it is indeed from the internal and external marquis. "
With that said, he broke the wax seal of the mailbox in front of Li Hao, took out the superstition inside and handed it to Li Hao.
Li Hao was really curious about what Gong Yegu could write for him, so he took it and started reading it.
The above told Li Hao some of the court's latest arrangements and a plan for Li Hao to escape alone.
It turns out that there is a tunnel in Hezhou City leading to the outside of the city. It was the second emperor of Su State, that is, the generation of Grandpa Li Hao.
Based on the situation when the city was forcibly occupied by An Guo, the marquis was asked to secretly dig tunnels in the border cities to prepare for possible counterattacks in the future. Hezhou City was the last one outside.
Only a few people knew about this matter, and Gong Yegu only found out about it after asking Yan Xu.
Gong Yegu asked Li Hao to inform the marquis in advance when he was leaving, and he would lead people to sneak into the secret passage exit to pick Li Hao up and leave.
But Li Hao really didn't want to leave, so after reading it, he handed the secret letter to Wang Kun.
Wang Kun looked at the front and said that it would take at least a month for the imperial reinforcements to arrive, and he felt quite depressed.
But when he saw the back, his eyes lit up, he was silent for a moment, and said: "I didn't expect that there is such a way out of the city. You will send someone secretly to the tunnel to check the situation later. I will guard the city in an emergency. You can do it from now on." Leave authentically.
Otherwise, if something happens to you, your mother will still hate me to death. However, after this incident in the Wang family, I am afraid that it will never be the same as it is today, so you have to be more careful in the future. "
When Li Hao saw him like this, he immediately joked: "No, uncle, you can't have some confidence in me! I promise that neither of us will have to run away."
But you still have to send someone to check the tunnel. With it, many things will be easier to handle. "
He immediately said to Chen Xi: "You should handle this matter yourself, and also find a way to contact the people from Xiayixue and ask them to get as close as possible to Hezhou City. We will need them, but be sure not to be discovered by An Jun."
Chen Xi agreed, and then went to do the things assigned by Li Hao.
Of course, the Yi Xue gang had to show up, and they had to have a reasonable explanation. Li Hao had planned to use the excuse of recruiting local soldiers to bring them in.
It was the same now, and he immediately said to Wang Kun: "Uncle, there is one more thing I need you to do. Before, you drafted a notice for the people of Hezhou to organize team training and defend the hometown for self-protection.
Now I ask you to write one more copy, and I will have it spread to surrounding counties. After all, my identity is not suitable, so I can only trouble you. "
Wang Kun naturally had no reason to refuse such a trivial matter, so he wrote it out on the spot, handed it to Li Hao with his seal, and then left.
Chen Xi returned soon after exploring the tunnel and introduced the relevant situation to Li Hao.
This tunnel is in the backyard of a house in the south of the city. It is no more than nine feet high and no more than one foot wide. It can allow two people to walk side by side at the same time. The exit is located in a dense forest in the south of the city.
He had just checked around the tunnel, and there were no traces of military action there.
After confirming this, Li Hao had an idea in mind, but the specific implementation had to wait for the volunteers to arrive.
So after giving him the notice, Li Hao asked him to go down and get busy.
Unlike the unified situation in the city, the Anjun camp outside the city was currently discussing whether to continue attacking Hezhou or to withdraw from the siege and return to uproot the surrounding small towns.
After all, they came out of seclusion just to take advantage of Su State. In the end, except for Luping County, which they occupied because of Zheng Zhuo, they had nothing to gain. Instead, they lost so many people.
Anguo itself has a tribal system that parallels the Central Plains system. Except for some soldiers and horses who receive royal pay, the private soldiers of each tribe live off the spoils of war.
But there is some truth in what these two parties said. Breaking Hezhou City will not only take away
The golden key of living in Li Hao also means that they can do whatever they want in the northern prefectures.
However, the possible reinforcements from Su State and the soldiers and horses of Chu State who often caused trouble in the past are also problems weighing on their heads.
If Hezhou City has not been breached before they appear, they will be forced to retreat, and they will not be able to gain much by then.
One is the idealized maximum benefit, and the other is the immediate benefit. No one on either side can convince the other.
Emperor An and Li Xuan were sitting on the dragon throne, quietly watching the people below arguing without saying a word.
It wasn't until they were tired of arguing that they asked Duke Chu, who had never participated, "Mr. Chu, I wonder if you think we should stay and continue to attack Hezhou City."
Duke Chu was a good fighter, but he was also good at understanding the emperor's thoughts.
What Emperor An and Li Xuan said was obviously very biased, and there were no issues of principle.
He did not object, but he did not directly support it. Instead, he began to explain and analyze the situation: "Looking at the battle situation in the past two days, Su Jun made more and more defensive mistakes, and the number of hot oil and golden juice appeared also. A significant reduction.
Obviously, the elite soldiers in the city were depleted a lot, and there was also a problem with the supplies for defending the city.
As for the Su Kingdom reinforcements, there is no news yet. Even if they are about to arrive, a small group of cavalry can still be used to delay their advance.
Only the Chu State is in trouble, and the Su State will definitely ask them for help. It would be okay if they come here, because they are afraid that they will attack in the direction of Yizhou. "
After hearing this, Emperor An made a final decision: "What Duke Chu said is right. Now that Hezhou is about to be conquered, if we retreat at this time, wouldn't it mean that all our previous efforts have been wasted?"
Not only must we not stop, but we must continue to increase the intensity. I originally said that we would break the city within half a month, but you can't let me make a mistake. "
The generals in the tent responded in unison and loudly replied: "I will do my best."
Then An Dicai said: "As for Yizhou, I have sent the Marquis of Qing'an to lead the troops. With his ability, without seeking a big victory, there is no problem in defending the city. You can rest assured."
The ministers immediately complimented him: "Your Majesty is still thoughtful, and I admire you."
An Jun unified his thoughts, and then devoted himself to the attack on Hezhou City, and increased the intensity.
For a time, there were many dangers on the city wall, and Li Hao had no choice but to become a fire brigade and lead people everywhere to help with rescue operations.
Although this was a bit tiring, in the end, the city wall was firmly in hand and the balance of power was maintained.
This made Emperor An Li Xuan and his generals very angry. They were almost on the verge of capturing the enemy every time, but they only missed it by a breath.
In order to regain this breath, An Jun could only continue to strengthen his efforts.
At this time, Suguo's reinforcements had completed their preparations and began to march towards Hezhou City.
Even with Cui Ming watching from above, the support army finally set off five days later than expected.
Fortunately, Li Hao did not put all his hope on them, but was prepared to save himself.
After An Jun got the news, although he sent out light cavalry to harass, the sense of urgency in his heart became stronger, so he once again stepped up the attack, basically starting from dawn to dusk.
Not only were Li Hao and the others extremely exhausted from such an intense battle, but even An Jun was complaining endlessly.
But even so, Li Hao did not send the East Palace guards up again, but quietly waited for an opportunity.
Until Li Hao observed the sky, a strong wind was coming.
At this time, the people from Yi Xue had also moved to the mountain col near Hezhou, and Li Hao was ready to start his own desperate counterattack.
So Li Hao called Wang Kun and talked about his plan.
Li Hao was going to take the rested East Palace guards out of the city through the tunnel, go around outside the east gate, and launch a night attack on the Anjun camp.
After all, nights with dark moonlight, high winds and strong winds are the most suitable for night attacks.
Wang Kun disagreed with this 10,000 times. Although Anjun Camp was not as famous as them,
An army of 100,000 people, but even if we subtract the men and horses lost in these days, there are still 40,000 to 50,000 people.
Using more than a hundred people to attack a camp of 40,000 to 50,000 people had a low chance of success. He didn't want Li Hao to take the risk.
But Li Hao said: "A night attack is about defeating more with less. If the forces are equal, then I can just confront him head-on. Why bother?"
Moreover, I did not make this decision temporarily. After what I asked Chen Xi to explore these days, the An army considered itself surrounded by cities and had strong troops, and had no special intention for the camp.
In addition, when they camped, they camped in the central part of the sand, the eastern part of the sand and other small tribes. There were large gaps in the connecting points, so it was not difficult to sneak in.
I looked at the sky and saw that there will be a strong wind tonight, and I have prepared all the fire starters.
As long as a big fire is lit in their camp and the wind helps the fire, the An army will definitely be in chaos.
By then, not only can Hezhou's crisis be resolved, but Anjun may also be severely damaged. "
Wang Kun shook his head repeatedly and retorted: "You are just in an ideal state. What if something goes wrong somewhere? Then you will be like a sheep in a tiger's mouth."
Li Hao persuaded: "Uncle, how can one live in this world without taking any risks? Even if he keeps guard in the city, it is still dangerous.
And you know me, if it is really a dead end, I will never rush up.
Since I chose to do this, I am sure that I will escape unscathed, so don't worry. "
