Chapter 727: Fire Attack on Anyi
Chapter 727: Fire Attack on Anyi
Li Jing was not in a hurry to attack. He led his troops to retreat to Zhongtiao Mountain, waiting for food supplies on the one hand and sending scouts to continue investigating the enemy situation on the other. The spies in Yucheng Town were intelligence scouts, and they could only provide some general information, such as the logistics base was in the more hidden Anyi County, not in other counties. However, Li Jing needed detailed military intelligence, which they could not provide.
Soon, the scouts sent by Li Jing captured an outer patrol officer. Through interrogation, Li Jing thoroughly grasped the real situation in the city. He immediately summoned several Yingyang Langjiang generals to discuss military intelligence.
"The other side also considered the possibility of being attacked by fire, so they built three firewalls around the warehouse. In addition, the warehouse is in the middle of the county, not in the north of the county. I estimated the distance. We can only shoot rockets through the firewall and into the warehouse by standing on the city wall."
Everyone was a little confused. It was completely different from what they expected. What should they do?
Li Jing smiled slightly and said, "Although it is not easy to shoot rockets into warehouses, it is very easy to shoot rockets into civilian houses in the city. As long as the civilian houses are on fire, their warehouses will not be able to be saved in the chaos."
Li Jing looked up and said, "The weather has been bad these past few days, this is a good opportunity for us to take action!"
At night, Li Jing led an army of 10,000 to Anyi County. Because Anyi County was close to the salt lake, it was surrounded by saline-alkali land with no grass and no trees. It was difficult for the army to hide near the city, but the night was the best hiding place.
The weather was gloomy, with dark clouds and no sunshine during the day. At night, it was pitch black outside the city. You couldn't see what was happening outside the city from thirty steps away.
The defenders in the city were also very nervous. They not only strengthened the patrols outside the city, but also strengthened the night patrols of the soldiers on the city walls.
The patrols outside the city were killed one by one. Even if someone found something unusual, there was no time for them to rush back to the city to notify.
Ten thousand Sui troops quickly approached the South City. Although the defenders on the top of the city could not see the situation outside the city, they also felt the breath of danger and started shouting.
At this moment, an extremely spectacular scene appeared. Five thousand arrows were fired from outside the city. When they passed over the top of the city, they suddenly became brighter and turned into a large dazzling fire, rushing straight into the city. The defenders on the top of the city shouted in fear.
The houses in the south were set on fire, with hundreds of fire spots appearing. The thatched roofs burned rapidly. The sleeping soldiers were in a panic and rushed out of the houses and crowded into the streets. The south gate was opened and the soldiers rushed out.
The Sui army ambushed outside the city immediately attacked and captured groups of escaping Wagang soldiers. The same was true in the North City. The soldiers defending the city scrambled to escape the city, but were immediately surrounded and captured by the 5,000 troops ambushed outside the North City.
But the night was too dark, and many Wagang Army soldiers fled into the darkness.
In the chaos, a thousand Sui soldiers entered the city. They raised their crossbows and fired rockets at the warehouses in the city. Hundreds of rockets shot into the hay tents, setting the tents and hay on fire. The entire supply city was finally engulfed in flames.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
An hour later, dozens of rockets were shot into the sky and exploded in the air. This was the order to retreat. The Sui army began to retreat in an orderly manner, escorting more than 10,000 prisoners of war and quickly retreating to the south of the Salt Lake.
Only the fire in Anyi County was still burning; the entire county was completely engulfed in thick smoke and flames.
At this time, the commander of the Wagang Army who led an army of 100,000 to fight fiercely with the Tang Wang Army in Hedong City was Shan Xiongxin.
The gunpowder arrows and porcelain fire bombs of the Tang Wang army were very sharp, and the Wagang army gradually couldn't hold on. First, Puzhou Pass was lost, and then the Tang Wang army changed its commander. Li Xiaogong led the army to attack Hedong City day and night.
Porcelain fire bombs exploded on the top of the city walls, broken iron in bottles flew everywhere, and the Wagang army suffered heavy casualties. Seeing that Hedong City was about to be lost, Shan Xiongxin gradually began to think about withdrawing. That afternoon, Shan Xiongxin was pacing back and forth in the lobby, thinking about how to write a report to Li Mi, asking for the withdrawal of troops to Jiang County. Shan Xiongxin was essentially a leader of the rebel army. If there was no "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties", Shan Xiongxin would have been an unknown little person in history.
When he was young, Shan Xiongxin was a thief who robbed other thieves. He had never read any military books, and all his knowledge was based on his own experience.
He only considered that his army could no longer hold on and needed to retreat, but he never considered why he was able to fight against Li Yuan's army for nearly two months.
War can be divided into war in a narrow sense and war in a broad sense. War in the narrow sense refers to a fierce battle between two armies, soldier against soldier, general against general. In the narrow sense of war, there is no difference between the Wagang Army and the Tang King's Army. It is a battle of weapons and equipment, training and morale, and the number of troops. Basically, nothing else is involved.
But war in a broad sense is a battle, which is not as simple as two armies participating in the war. It is a battle of national strength and the support of the people. For example, Xiao Xia suddenly took out 100,000 camels or thousands of large ships to transport food and fodder, and hundreds of thousands of stones of food and heavy weapons were quickly transported to the battlefield. This is a strong national strength. No other army can do it. It can quickly deploy an army of hundreds of thousands.
The second is the support of the whole people, and behind the support of the whole people is the support of local officials and gentry and wealthy families.
Li Yuan's army is now fighting very unhappily because his army is trapped at the entrance to Hedong and can only fight a narrow war with the Wagang Army.
But once Shan Xiongxin led his troops to retreat, Li Yuan's army would spread out in Hedong and would immediately gain support from local government and landlords in Hedong. They would send food and money to reward the army, and young and strong people would enthusiastically join the army. The momentum would rise immediately, and the entire battle situation would become a sweeping or unstoppable victory.
Once the war turned into a battle, the Wagang Army became a rat crossing the street that everyone wanted to kill. It's like a concert. In one situation, the audience below booed, yelled and jeered, and in another situation, all the audience were very excited and everyone was having fun together. You can imagine how these two situations would have a huge impact on the singers on the stage.
Historically, why was the Tang Dynasty able to sweep across the world in such a short period of time? Because they fought battles, not wars. Dou Jiande, Li Mi, Yu Wenzhi, Wang Shichong, Xiao Xing, these separatist forces could barely fight a few wars, but in the face of battles, they were scum, and local officials and landlords did not support them.
This is a bit like the recent India-Pakistan war, where India was defeated instantly. India fought with weapons, but Pakistan fought with its powerful industrial system.
This is why it is said that the four-day India-Pakistan war will become a war that changes human history. This is the reason. The war has escalated, just like the escalation from the cold weapon era to the hot weapon era.
The support of the landlord and wealthy class is a kind of system. Facing the systems of Guanzhong and Hedong Road, the 200,000-strong Wagang Army is useless.
Li Mi certainly did not have this system advantage, and neither did Shan Xiongxin, so they were destined to be defeated by Li Yuan's army. However, the involvement of the Prince of Jin's army meant that a more powerful system was coming in.
At this time, Shan Xiongxin received a report that Anyi County was attacked by the enemy, all the food and grass were burned, and the 20,000-strong army was almost wiped out.
Shan Xiongxin thought that it was the Tang King's army that launched a surprise attack on Anyi County. While he was horrified, he was also secretly relieved because he finally found a reason to withdraw his troops.
That night, Shan Xiongxin led an army of 100,000 to retreat quickly to the north.
(End of this chapter)