allonlinenovel Chapter 302 Bloody Battle
Chapter 302 Bloody Battle
The next day.
dawn.
Jiang Zuo just took a short rest before Chen Xiu came and woke him up.
"The main force of the Chen army has arrived outside Guangning City."
This news immediately perked up Jiang Zuo.
"All soldiers outside the city have returned to Guangning City for garrison. As long as Chen's army fails to capture the city, the follow-up troops of the Huainan army at the ferry will launch a surprise attack on the flank of Chen's army."
Chen Xiu continued.
Jiang Zuo nodded slightly, said nothing, stretched, and followed Chen Xiu's steps to the top of the city wall to inspect the situation of Chen's army outside the city.
From the highest point of the city wall, one could see from afar that tens of thousands of enemy troops had gathered in the distant suburbs.
Before this, they should have arrived at the outskirts of Guangning City yesterday, but due to the obstruction of the Anding Army outside Zhu City, the elite Jingji Army was unable to reach the front line quickly for a while.
Although the 500 Anding troops did not inflict heavy damage on the enemy, they did delay the advance of Chen's army.
The Chen army's formation was extremely large. Without the obstruction of the Yan army outside the city, the Chen army quickly gathered more than 100,000 soldiers outside the city, determined to capture the Guangning City in front of them.
Fortunately, before this, Jiang Zuo had ordered people to repair the walls of Guangning City with cement, sand and stone. Although the walls of Guangning City looked devastated at this moment, they were still very strong and were not afraid of the attack of Chen Jun.
"This time, Chen Jun is going to spend a lot of money."
Jiang Zuo murmured.
Chen Xiu also said: "As long as we defend against the first wave of Chen Jun's attack, they will surely collapse without a fight."
The mighty momentum of Chen's army not only did not scare the defenders in the city, but on the contrary, many soldiers among the defenders were extremely confident.
Because when they turned around, they could see the Anding cannon mounted on the city wall.
With these heavyweight weapons, Chen Jun still wants to attack Guangning City?
There was not a trace of fear on the faces of the Yan army soldiers. On the contrary, many of them were even a little conceited and complacent. If Chen Xiu had not repeatedly reminded them not to underestimate the enemy, these people would probably have killed their way to the city of Jiankang.
By noon, the Chen army outside the city seemed to have assembled and could launch an attack on Guangning City at any time.
At this moment, the commander of Chen Jun outside the city is still Wang Qilei.
As the northern general of the State of Chen, he commanded an army of 100,000, and it was no surprise that the important task of retaking Guangning City fell into his hands.
Wang Qilei did not have much talent, and not many people in the army truly admired him. The reason why he was able to get such an important position was simply because he had an uncle who held an important position - the current Prime Minister Liu.
At this moment, Wang Qilei was sitting on his horse, looking at Guangning City from afar, muttering, "Pan Hou is a waste. With so many soldiers and horses, he can't even defend Guangning City."
He really couldn't understand how the Yan army crossed the Ling River and captured Guangning City in one day.
After much thought, there may be only one reason, that is, Pan Hou failed to resist and surrendered to the Yan army.
"Pass on this general's order. Send out your entire army to recapture Guangning City within three days!"
Wang Qilei ordered loudly.
The deputy general reminded: "General, we are still trying to find out the situation of the enemy in the city, please act with caution."
Wang Qilei showed disdain and said, "There are only 30,000 Yan troops in Guangning City. If we keep going, the Yan army will be unable to stop us. We must recapture Guangning City within three days."
The imperial court had already issued a death order that Guangning City must be recaptured, otherwise the other lines of defense would be in equal danger.
The deputy general suggested: "We can surround the city without attacking. As long as we besiege for half a month, the Chen army in the city will surely run out of food and grass, and then our army will launch a fierce attack."
Before the fight even started, Chen Jun's top brass were already divided.
But Wang Qilei, as the commander-in-chief, had absolute decision-making power. He shook his head and said, "Pass on this general's order. The entire army must prepare for the attack."
He did not want to surround the city without fighting, mainly because the Chen army did not have enough supplies to support an army of more than 100,000. They had to fight quickly and decisively. In Wang Qilei's view, only by retaking Guangning City could the entire Chen army's defense line be stabilized, so he made such a big gamble.
Chen Jun must not lose this battle.
But what Wang Qilei didn't know was that the reason why the rest of Chen's army hadn't collapsed was entirely because the Yan army was only feinting and hadn't launched a full-scale attack, thus creating the illusion that Chen's army had held its defense line.
Whether inside or outside the city, the atmosphere at this moment has become increasingly tense.
Chen's army was preparing to launch an attack on Guangning City from two directions at the same time.
"The Chen army is attacking, everyone get ready."
Chen Xiu shouted loudly.
The defenders in the city had already made preparations and were waiting for the arrival of the enemy at any time.
Sure enough, half an hour later, Chen's army had assembled.
All that was heard was the sound of thundering drums, and tens of thousands of Chen's troops rushed towards Guangning City like a tide.
And in Guangning City, the artillery of the Anding Army was already waiting for this group of enemies.
Seeing the enemy getting closer and closer, the general of the Anding Army immediately shouted: "Fire!"
In an instant, the earth shook and the sound was like thunder.
The shells were fired and landed in the middle of Chen's army, immediately splashing up a blood mist. Some of Chen's soldiers didn't even know what was happening before they lost their lives.
Many Chen army soldiers had never seen this kind of cannon, but they had heard that the Yan army had a terrible weapon. When they saw it today, they were immediately panicked.
Many recruits were so frightened that their legs went weak. If the supervision team had not been right beside them, they would have already fled.
Before Chen's army got close, a new round of shelling began.
What followed was an overwhelming rain of arrows. Seeing the Chen army approaching, the Anding army soldiers aimed their muskets at the enemy's weak points and began to shoot fiercely.
Even though the Chen army had many shield carts, they were still unable to stop the Yan army's fierce bombardment.
The Chen army's attack was swift, but the Yan army's counterattack was even more fierce.
As Chen's army struggled to approach the city wall and set up ladders, a hand-to-hand combat was inevitable.
A bloody battle had lasted for three hours, from noon to dusk.
Seeing that Chen's army was approaching the city wall, some Huainan army generals even went out to fight with the soldiers themselves.
The battlefield was in a stalemate, but due to their superior troop strength, Chen's army did not collapse immediately.
At this moment, Jiang Zuo was not on the city wall, but standing on a high tower in the city, observing the battle situation with a telescope.
It can be clearly seen that Chen's army outside the city has already fallen into chaos.
Due to the long-term siege, the morale of Chen’s army had already been exhausted.
Even though they suffered many casualties, Chen's army still failed to break through the gate of Guangning City.
At this point, it seems the time is ripe.
"Fire the flare!"
Jiang Zuo shouted.
A moment later, a firework exploded over Guangning City, followed by several more in succession.
This was a signal to the Yan army soldiers lurking outside the city, indicating that they could charge towards Guangning City and work together to eliminate the Chen army outside the city.
As soon as the signal went out, the Yan cavalry, which had been hiding outside Guangning City, immediately began to assemble and launched a fierce attack on the weakest flank of the Chen army.