Chapter 929: The "Army" Besieging the City
Chapter 929: The "Army" Besieging the City
The city of Chang'an has been surrounded.
Trenches were dug everywhere, and some even had water diverted to them.
The nearby forests were all cut down and turned into large camps and stockade walls, which were filled with "strange" soldiers.
Yes, this was Hou Feihu’s first impression when he first saw them.
In terms of hairstyle, some have shaved heads, some have braided hair, some have their hair loose, some have their hair in a bun, and some have short hair.
In terms of facial features, there are big plate faces, long faces, high noses and deep eyes, and all kinds of faces.
In terms of attire, some wore rough linen clothes, some wore worn-out sheepskin coats, some wore moth-eaten leather armor, and some even had their upper bodies bare with scribbled symbols on them...
There aren't many normal ones.
Of course, everyone knows that these are just young men who were temporarily conscripted and their combat effectiveness varies.
No matter how poor the tribal leaders were, they could still collect dozens of sets of armor and support a hundred or so personal warriors. It was just that these people were reluctant to spend their money.
Hou Feihu's camp was set up in Bashang, east of Chang'an City, which was actually a little far from Chang'an City. The garrison had no intention of actively attacking the city, but was more of a desire to drive the various Hu soldiers to attack the city.
Today (August 16), he led thousands of soldiers from the Heiliang Left Camp to inspect part of the eastern part of the city.
Ten thousand Longxi soldiers from Liang Xun's army were stationed here.
As the name suggests, Longxi is a place where Hu and Han people live together. It can even be said that there are far more Hu people than Han people.
The Di and Qiang were the mainstream of the area, with a small number of Xiongnu tribes - judging from the years they had lived in Longxi, they could almost be considered "new indigenous people".
In recent years, a group of Jie people even migrated here. In short, it is very chaotic.
When Hou Feihu climbed to a high place and looked into the distance, he saw a group of Hun cavalry rushing towards him.
Liang Xun himself was not there, but his sons, nephews and the leaders of various tribes were still working hard, but the battle was really a bit -
A team of light cavalry (Qiang people) with disheveled hair in the center came forward and fought with the Huns. It was originally a good opportunity to outflanking the Huns from both wings, but the people deployed on the left and right could not understand the flags. Can you believe it?
People were sent over to deliver the message, but the language was not understood. After it was translated by many people, they finally understood what was going on. Then hundreds of Jie cavalry and hundreds of Di cavalry armed with bows and horseback bows rushed forward, but the Huns had already defeated the Qiang cavalry in front and returned to the attack camp near the city wall.
The Jie and Di peoples pursued fiercely at this time, but were hit by a hail of arrows from the enemy on the city wall and had to retreat in embarrassment.
Hou Feihu sighed deeply.
With this level, what’s the point of fighting?
However, just as this thought came into Hou Feihu's mind, a more disciplined troop came forward, a total of 3,000 people, advanced in formation, and attacked the Huns' camp outside the city.
Arrows were fired continuously from the camp. The attackers held up their wooden shields and people were constantly shot dead or wounded. However, the remaining people obeyed orders and were more methodical. They attacked for a long time before retreating.
Hou Feihu counted silently and found that the attackers had about 500 casualties, and the Huns also had nearly 300 casualties. They actually fought quite well.
"Who is this?" he asked.
Soon someone went to inquire, and a moment later, the messenger reported: "This is the Longxi Li clan."
"The Longxi Li family?" Hou Feihu was stunned. Is there such a family in Longxi?
"The Li family calls themselves a poor family." An aide stroked his beard lightly, with a teasing smile on his face, and said, "That's just what they call themselves."
Hou Feihu shook his head and laughed.
In places like Henan and Hebei, if there had not been a major chaos, the county genealogy had not been lost, and the local gentry had not suffered large numbers of casualties, it would generally be difficult to falsify identities.
You are obviously a rich and powerful person, but you insist that you are from a poor family. If you are found out, you will lose all your face.
But in places like Longxi, the rules were not so strict. In some places, the powerful were very eager to make progress, but they were constantly ridiculed and excluded by the gentry. Over time, their mentality became distorted, and they would secretly call themselves poor families to elevate their family status.
Hou Feihu can be considered a famous general of the time, but he does not come from a prominent family. The Hou family of Donghai is now just a powerful family.
If his son could still be an official, perhaps he could shamelessly manipulate his way into becoming a lower-class noble, but that's obviously not possible now.
"The combat strength of each unit is uneven. We should focus on defense, reorganize the troops first, and then fight the enemy." Hou Feihu was not interested in watching anymore.
Some tribal soldiers are actually quite brave and dare to fight, but they have no rules and fight randomly. Someone needs to teach them how to fight.
Furthermore, the equipment was of poor quality and armor was extremely scarce, which greatly affected the combat effectiveness.
If they could have years of training and be uniformly equipped with sophisticated equipment, their combat effectiveness would increase rapidly - if their foundation is too poor, the improvement would be faster, while elite troops like the Heiliang Zuoying would improve much more slowly.
But this is not an easy task.
How many years has it been since King Liang reorganized the five camps of the Yellow Head Army? Only now have we seen any results.
The Yellow Head Army is actually a pretty good unit if placed here.
They can only serve as auxiliary troops in front of the Heilongjiang Army, but they can serve as the main force in the hands of the Guanzhong heroes.
"Commander-in-chief." Zheng Dong, the commander of the fourth battalion of the Yellow Head Army, rode up and met Hou Feihu at the foot of the high platform. He said, "The troops of various tribes are clamoring and making a mess. I was watching the battle in the north of the city just now. The Qiang soldiers led by Xuchu attacked the Xiongnu camp, but after they retreated in defeat, the other camps did not rescue them. The Xiongnu cavalry who came from Fuping even laughed loudly, and the Xianbei people even rode back on their horses, fearing that they would be swept away by the Di Qiang fleeing soldiers. In the end, it was the Di soldiers of Puhong's tribe who went forward and repelled the pursuit of the Tuge cavalry."
"Is this true?" Hou Feihu felt the seriousness of the situation as soon as he heard it. In recent days, the Guanzhong nobles and tribes who came here on orders have no less than 100,000 troops. The momentum is huge, but the combat effectiveness is uneven. Some are still able to fight, while others are so vulnerable that they can't even bluff anyone.
Actually, these are nothing.
The real problem is what Zheng Dongfang just said, that the friendly forces were defeated, but the others just sat there and watched, and even fucking laughed loudly!
Is this really a friendly force?
The troops were in disarray and had no subordinates to each other. To be honest, even if King Liang came, it would be difficult to unite these troops with complex compositions into one. This could not be done in a short period of time.
What Hou Feihu is most worried about now is that a certain unit will be defeated, and then suddenly someone will shout "Our army is defeated", and then run away, leading to a large retreat in one direction.
This kind of thing is not impossible to happen, it’s really frustrating just thinking about it.
"Follow me to the north of the city." Hou Feihu frowned and sighed.
******
Jin Zhun came to the top of the city wall and observed carefully.
The city of Chang'an at that time was not big, even Luoyang was not big enough.
If we ignore the messy buildings outside the city, the circumference of Chang'an City is only about 20 miles, which is the same level as Luoyang, but slightly smaller.
Luoyang really became bigger during the Northern Wei Dynasty, when all the building areas outside the city were enclosed by city walls, that is, the outer city was built.
Chang'an did not become larger until the Sui and Tang dynasties, when the city was seventy or eighty miles in circumference. However, the city walls were very low, only about five or six meters high, and very thin, so they could be easily smashed by the attackers.
Therefore, Chang'an in the Wei and Jin dynasties could be defended, but Chang'an in the Sui and Tang dynasties could not be defended.
But no matter how easy it is to defend, it still needs people.
There were about 20,000 to 30,000 reinforcements from various tribes, most of whom were stationed outside the city.
The only troops capable of fighting in the city were the remnants of the imperial guards, about 10,000 people, and now they were all under the command of Jin Zhun.
Jin Zhun knew that Chang'an could not be defended with only 10,000 men, so he recruited young men from the city to garrison the city to make up for the shortage. He even allowed some of the imperial guards to leave the city and fight in the field.
The nobles of Guanzhong and the soldiers and horses of various Hu people have gathered here one after another.
The first to arrive were the troops stationed in the east of the city.
It was reported that Hou Feihu's main camp was set up in Bashang, and more than 10,000 troops of Liang Xun were expelled from Bashang, dug trenches and set up fences in the east of the city, and used old buildings for garrison.
King Liu Xian of Runan led his army to attack and found that they actually had no order.
We were defeated by the king's army back then and moved here, so we can defeat them now.
There was no movement in the south of the city.
Zhao Gu led more than 20,000 soldiers to guard the city. He launched a small attack once, but after being repelled, he stopped attacking.
Thousands of Zaohu people from Beiyishan rebelled and joined forces with Zhao Gu, inviting him to attack the city. Zhao Gu refused, so Zaohu people attacked alone and were defeated by Liu Yue, Prince of Guangping.
There are a lot of bandit troops in the north of the city, no less than 50,000 in number, but their origins are complex and they cannot form a joint force.
Xuchu Quanqu sent troops to attack, but was repelled by King Anding Liu Ce.
The west of the city is more complicated than the north, with a large group of mixed Hu gathered. You have 1,000, I have 2,000, and the largest group is the 10,000 Lushui Hu Peng Tianhu, with a total of less than 30,000 soldiers, plus 20,000 Fengyi Di Qiang, a total of more than 40,000, and they have not launched an attack yet.
Because of this, the officers and generals in the city actually had some hope, thinking that maybe they could turn the tables and force back the army besieging the city.
But Jin Zhun didn't dare to think so at all.
There were nearly 200,000 troops besieging the city. Although they were not under the same command and had no rules, they dug trenches, set up camps, and built a strong siege, which was enough to consume Chang'an to death.
Moreover, during this chaos in Guanzhong, I heard that there were more troops looting everywhere in Jingzhao, Beidi, Anding, Fufeng and other counties. Now all the elite soldiers of Tuge are in Chang'an, and there are not many young and strong people in the tribe. Can they really resist the rebellious Hu and Han thieves?
If we were to be defeated, they would bring all the old, weak, women and children to the city of Chang'an, and the morale of the defenders would be in imminent collapse.
Jin Zhun's own tribe fled towards Anding, intending to go to Qinzhou and join the troops of Qinzhou Governor and Jiuquan King Shi Wu, but no one knew where they were now.
If they were captured halfway, Jin Zhun didn't know if he would have the courage to continue resisting.
So, after much thought, he felt that if Hou Feihu, who was commanding the siege, had some ability, but reorganized his troops and did not rush to attack, and once he stabilized this chaotic situation, Chang'an would certainly not be able to be defended.
In this case, we need to consider the way out.
Jin Zhun had no idea of being buried alive with the Tuge clan. He only thought about himself and his tribe.
He believed that there were many people who shared the same ideas as him.
Especially Jiang Ying (Duling Jiang), You Ziyuan (Jincheng You, living in Fengyi), Xin Shu (Longxi Xin), Hu Xun (Anding Hu) and other Han officials and generals, they were originally descendants of Guanxi aristocrats, if Shao Xun had not entered Guanzhong, they might still serve the court. But now that the army is besieging Chang'an, do you think these people will rebel?
Hou Feihu was overwhelmed by the chaotic army besieging the city, and Jin Zhun was also overwhelmed by the pessimistic situation.
This battle is so "strange".
(End of this chapter)