Chapter 772 Breaking the Covenant
Chapter 772 Breaking the Covenant
After defeating the Tang King's Western Army, Xue Ju's army quickly advanced eastward and occupied Longxi County and Tianshui County. Although Xue Ju's army did not burn, kill, or loot, they made the two counties terrified in another way, that is, conscription.
Xue Ju's conscription was almost a land-clearing method. All men over the age of fourteen and under the age of sixty had to join the army. In fact, many teenagers were not even fourteen years old, but were just a little taller, and were also considered to be over fourteen years old and joined the army.
In just ten days, nearly 80,000 men from the two counties were forcibly incorporated into the army. Together with the surrendered soldiers from the Tang Wang army, Xue Ju's army quickly approached 200,000 people.
But then there was the food problem. All the men were drafted into the army. Who would farm the land? How would the army ensure food supply?
In the past, it was the Qiang people and the local nobles in Longyou who supported Xue Ju, but after two years of war, the Qiang people and the local nobles had also lost their wealth and were no longer able to support Xue Ju.
The food problem became a huge problem for Xue Ju. Although he defeated the Tang King's army and seized a lot of spoils, they were mainly weapons, armor and tents. There was not much food and it would soon be exhausted.
Xue Ju naturally set his sights on Jincheng County. Why did he set his sights on Jincheng County? Because Xiangwu County of Longxi County was the logistics base of the Tang King's army. In order to support the Longyou War, Chang'an stockpiled nearly 500,000 shi of grain and 2 million strings of money in Xiangwu County, as well as a large amount of other supplies.
After Li Gui successfully raided Longxi County, the first thing he did was to move the food, fodder and copper coins to Jincheng County. According to the previous agreement, Li Gui took Jincheng County, Xue Ju took Tianshui County and Longxi County. In addition, Li Gui knew that he was no match for Xue Ju, so he did not dare to occupy Longxi County, but quickly transported the supplies and food away.
Although Longxi County was finally handed over to Xue Ju, all the grain, copper coins and other supplies were emptied and transported to Jincheng County.
Xue Ju got Longxi County but did not get any food or copper coins from the Tang King's army. You can imagine how angry he was.
Inside the big tent, Xue Ju discussed with his son Xue Rengao and the general Zong Luohou.
"I heard that Xu Min, the governor of Dunhuang County, took advantage of the emptiness of Hexi and sent troops to occupy Hexi. Li Gui has already retreated westward in a hurry, so he can't take the money and grain of Jincheng County with him. We have to take it down."
"Father, please let me go!" Xue Rengao volunteered immediately.
Xue Ju glanced at Zong Luohou, waiting for his attitude.
Zong Luohou was silent for a moment and said, "Li Gui seized Jincheng County through trickery. I heard that all 20,000 troops surrendered and Li Gui withdrew. The 20,000 troops must still be in the city. Your Majesty, it is not easy to attack Jincheng County guarded by 20,000 people."
Xue Ju sneered and said, "General Zong means that if it's difficult to attack, then don't attack?"
"No! No! No!"
Zong Luohou waved his hands quickly, "That's not what I meant. What I meant was that we should be more fully prepared, especially the siege weapons."
Xue Ju said calmly: "We have seized a large number of siege weapons, including ladders, siege ladders, catapults, nesting vehicles, and bridge-laying vehicles. Isn't that enough?"
Zong Luohou knew very well that he had recruited too many soldiers and could not sustain the food supply, so he had to reduce the number of soldiers. Xue Ju then asked him to be responsible for attacking the city and use war to reduce his army.
He was helpless and could only bow and say: "I will definitely take down Jincheng County!"
Zong Luohou led an army of 50,000 and marched into Jincheng County in a mighty manner. Xue Ju personally led an army of 20,000 to supervise the battle.
On the same day they entered Jincheng County, the Sui army crossed the Yellow River, tricked the city gate open, and captured Jincheng County.
Li Jing stood on the top of the city wall, looking south. He had just received news from his scouts that an army of about 70,000 was heading towards Jincheng County. Needless to say, this army must be the army of Xue Ju, the King of Western Qin. But why did Xue Ju's army attack Jincheng County? Aren't they allies with Li Gui?
Could it be that Xue Ju had already discovered that the Sui army had occupied Jincheng County?
Impossible. His army had just crossed the Yellow River and launched a successful surprise attack last night. How could Xue Ju know about that?
At this time, Qu Tu said, "Li Zhongcheng, I think the other party is probably here for food!"
This sentence woke Li Jing up. Yes, Li Gui had transported all the money, grain and supplies in the logistics camp of Longxi County to Jincheng County. They were in a hurry to rescue Hexi and did not take them with them. Now they are all in the warehouse group in Jincheng County. Even the county and county governments are full of copper coins.
Li Jing was the commander of the Northwest Route and held the title of Chief Censor. He pondered for a moment and asked, "They have just entered Jincheng County. How many days will it take to reach Jincheng County?"
Qu Tutong was very familiar with the situation here. He smiled and said, "If the enemy carries a lot of siege weapons, it will take about three days. But if the enemy has cavalry, they will reach Jincheng County tomorrow."
Li Jing nodded, "They must have thought that there are only 20,000 people in the city, so they can use their tricks against us."
Qu Tutong laughed again and said, "Why don't I do the same as last time and lead 20,000 cavalrymen to the periphery and attack the enemy from behind when they are least prepared?"
Li Jing happily said: "It would be better to launch a sneak attack at night, which would be more likely to succeed!"
Qu Tutong added: "I am used to launching surprise attacks around three o'clock in the morning. On the day of the surprise attack, I will light the beacon tower at Jincheng Pass on the north bank at noon. The enemy will think that we are asking for help from Hexi."
"That's a good idea. If you light the beacon, I will also light the beacon to mislead the enemy."
The two sides discussed the details, and Qu Tutong immediately led 20,000 cavalrymen to leave Jincheng County.
Li Jing immediately changed the flag, replacing it with Li Gui's Xiliang flag, removed all the Sui army logos, and closed the city gates.
Two days later, the 70,000-strong army finally arrived in full force, carrying a large amount of baggage. The army began to set up camp, and hundreds of craftsmen assembled large siege weapons.
Xue Ju squinted his eyes and observed Jincheng County. Li Gui's Xiliang flag was hung on the top of the city wall. The city wall was indeed unusually tall and solid. He was quite scared. In fact, Xue Ju was very familiar with Jincheng County, but he was a soldier of the Sui army before and had never paid attention to sieges, so he didn't feel how tall the walls of Jincheng County were.
Now that he was looking at the wall from the perspective of a besieger, he realized how difficult it was to attack the Golden City, and that without a strategy, there would probably be heavy casualties.
Xue Ju's only hope was that the morale of the soldiers defending the city walls was low and they were unwilling to fight, making it easy for them to capture the city walls.
Xue Ju immediately sent someone to fetch Zong Luohou. Not long after, Zong Luohou hurried over, clasped his fists and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Your Majesty!"
Xue Ju pointed at the city wall and said, "Our food supply won't last long. When will General Zong attack the city?"
Zong Luohou sighed inwardly, clasped his fists and said, "It will take two to three days to assemble the large-scale siege weapons. Tomorrow, I plan to send 10,000 soldiers to use siege ladders to test the city and see the enemy's defenses and morale."
Xue Ju nodded, "Then we will attack the city tomorrow morning. I look forward to your performance, General!"
(End of this chapter)