Chapter 1076 1 As always

Chapter 1076 1 As always

Chapter 1076 As always
Jiangling has become a "city that never sleeps".

Nightlife is a battle, it goes on all night long, fighting all night long.

At the hour of Yin, Tao Bin was awakened by the sound of drums.

After trying several times, he still couldn't fall asleep again, so he got up, dressed, and walked out of the mansion.

It's the end of the first lunar month, and spring is only a few days away, but fine snowflakes are floating in the sky again.

Tao Bin subconsciously stretched out his hand and let the snowflakes fall into his palm and slowly melt.

It looks a bit like tears.

He raised his head and looked at the night sky. For some reason, he suddenly felt poetic, but he finally shook his head. He was not in the mood to compose a poem.

I don’t know for whom the snow is crying!

Many soldiers were squatting on both sides of the street. It was not because they had no place to live, but because they were ready to reinforce the city walls at any time, so they had no choice but to do so.

Tao Bin even heard a little crying. After asking around, he found out that it was reinforcements sent from Xiangzhou.

The Xiangzhou soldiers originally had 2,000 soldiers, and they were basically the only force that had recently come to Jiangling to help. They had actually fought against bandits and refugee armies in the counties of Xiangzhou, and they were not without combat experience, but as soon as they entered the battlefield, they were driven off the city walls by the fierce attack of the Liang army, and almost made a fool of themselves: many small cities could hold out for quite a while, and Jiangling was almost broken by a single blow because of the retreat of the Xiangzhou soldiers.

In the end, they had no choice but to dispatch the troops from Jingzhou. Relying on the advantages of geographical location and large numbers, they repelled the Liang army at the cost of heavy casualties.

When Tao Bin went out of the city to reinforce the water fort yesterday, he did not dare to dispatch soldiers from Xiangzhou, which shows that he had completely lost confidence in them.

But these people cannot be discarded, after all, there are still a thousand people left. They can only be mixed with the servants of the wealthy families to form a force of two thousand people. From time to time, they will go to the city to replace the Jingzhou soldiers who are tired from the long battle. After all, there are not many of them left, less than two thousand five hundred.

Tao Bin did not punish the crying soldier and continued walking forward.

When he reached a certain place, his personal guards suddenly stopped him.

Tao Bin was startled and looked into the darkness ahead.

There used to be a military camp there, but now there are only a few dim oil lamps lit, and the weak flames flicker in the wind and snow.

There seemed to be someone in the camp, as occasional coughs were heard.

It seemed that there was no one there, because most of the people were lying on the hay and reed mats as if they were dead.

He remembered that it was the sick and wounded camp.

Those who were injured in battle or fell ill were basically not differentiated and were all stuffed here.

Most of the people who took care of them were Jiangling residents who were forcibly conscripted. They were very resistant and there was no pay, so they took care of them in a very sloppy manner, which could be seen from the faint stink that came in the wind.

The wounded and sick didn't even have the strength to groan, and were all waiting to die...

Tao Bin did not dare to move forward, but turned in another direction. Before leaving, he secretly thought that he might be able to recruit more people tomorrow, as the current situation was a little excessive.

He quickly turned to the base of a city wall.

Even through the earth wall, he could feel the waves of vibrations.

He knew that the Liang people were using thunder chariots to bombard the city walls.

But in fact, it has little effect. The main reason is beyond your imagination: it is difficult to find so many stones, and polishing them is extremely troublesome.

At the beginning, the defenders were still in a state of panic for a while. In order to destroy their Thunderbolt Chariots, they sent people out of the city several times to attack, but they suffered a great loss, losing more than a thousand people in several times, so they pretended to be dead and let you smash them.

Before they knew it, Tao Bin and his group arrived at the North City.

There are also many soldiers sitting here.

Only a few people were wearing tattered cotton clothes, and most of them were leaning against the brazier, blowing hot air on their hands, or standing up and stamping their feet.

Humid Jiangling becomes extremely uncomfortable when it rains or snows.

Some of the braziers gradually dimmed, and soon someone numbly picked up an axe and started to dismantle the door panels.

I don’t know where the door panels came from, but the process probably wasn’t a peaceful one.

Tao Bin walked up the steps on both sides of the path.

The ground was very slippery after the snow, so he walked carefully and soon reached the top of the city wall.

What a spectacular sight of bright lights!
Stretching from the north of Jiangling City to the far north, camps were connected to each other, and torches, braziers, and lanterns dotted the entire land like stars.

Tao Bin didn’t know what the soldiers guarding the city would think when they saw this scene, but he was shocked when he saw it for the first time.

With so many soldiers gathered outside the city, the pressure they brought was enormous.

Especially when they launched a tidal offensive, crashing into Jiangling City wave after wave, one could not help but feel helpless.

From this perspective, the soldiers of Jingzhou are really good.

They stood their ground and were not frightened. They were able to rely on the city walls and terrain to hold their ground, and occasionally go out of the city to harass the enemy. Their fighting power was very strong.

But they were laughed at by local people before, saying that their Guanxi accent was very strange, or that they could not even speak Jin dialect fluently. Since its establishment by Liu Hong, the Jingzhou Army was composed of barbarians from various counties, refugees from Bashu, refugees from Guanxi and some local people from Jingzhou.

If it weren't for them, Jiangling would have been captured by the Liang army by now.

But their numbers were not many, only about 2,500 people were left, and they were trying their best to defend the city with 2,000 Xiangzhou soldiers and servants from the wealthy families in Jiangling.

The city is still recruiting young and strong men. More than 2,000 men have been newly recruited and are currently undergoing training, but Tao Bin also knows that they are not very reliable.

Perhaps, after a while, they should abandon the outer city and retreat to the inner city, but this also means that they have completely lost the opportunity to escape. Tao Bin was a little hesitant about this.

His wife, children, brothers and sisters are all in the city. Is he going to let them live and die with Jiangling?
Tao Bin was unwilling to see this happen, but he also knew that if he sent his family to the outer city before the city was lost and evacuated by boat, the morale of the Jiangling defenders would collapse.

Nothing can be kept secret for long. Once you do something, it will eventually be known to others. It’s just a matter of time. But Tao Bin couldn’t help but want to do it.

A dilemma!

Rhythmic drum beats rang out again in the wind and snow.

Tao Bin looked around and saw countless black shadows flashing in the place where the lights could not reach.

They moved quickly, and seemed to have a sense of tragic and desolate momentum, as they rushed towards Jiangling City in a desperate manner.

In the brightly lit area, there stood a group of well-equipped troops, staring intently at their "comrades" who were launching the attack.

The rear team kills the front team. This is an old trick. It is cruel but practical.

Tao Bin knew that he would have another sleepless night.

Rivers of blood are bound to flow.

******
In the Liang army camp, Jiang Ke also climbed up to the high platform and overlooked Jiangling.

Teams of archers have arrived at the bottom of the earthen platform and are climbing up quickly.

There are three earthen platforms in total, all located in the north of the city. They were built by the auxiliary soldiers in half a month.

Each one can accommodate dozens of archers, and can even place several powerful crossbows, launching attacks on Jiangling day and night.

The archers were just the first.

After they go up, a large number of young men will push the huge and heavy crossbow carts up, set them up, and bombard the enemy from a high position - yes, the earth platform is built of rammed earth, and the whole is higher than the wall of Jiangling City, so it has the advantage of being high above.

If the Jin army dares not to leave the city, then feel free to shoot. If they try to leave the city to destroy the earth platform, then seize the opportunity and try to annihilate more defenders - it is very difficult to kill an enemy soldier on the top of the city, but it is much easier to kill in a frontal field battle.

The fighting had already started in front, but Jiang Ke got down from the platform and didn't want to watch any more.

The emperor has gone south to Xiangyang. Although he is mainly busy with various aftermath affairs, he will definitely devote some of his energy to pay close attention to the battlefields of Jingling and Jiangling.

After Xiangfan surrendered, a large number of troops moved south.

As far as Jiang Ke knew, more than 8,000 surrendered troops from Xiangyang, led by Deng Yue, had arrived at the city of Jingling, and then headed east to attack the military garrison at Yangkou.

I heard that Tao Kan had sent his general Chen Xiu to lead thousands of troops to provide support, and I must not let these two places fall.

Once these troops are transferred eastward, they obviously cannot provide much support to Jiangling. This is a good thing for him, but it is also a pressure.

In this war, he got a rare opportunity. If he failed, his life would be over.

"Buzz..." A huge noise was heard from the front when a crossbow was fired.

"Buzz..." A sound also came from the second platform.

The ballista was heavy, sluggish, and slow to fire, but it was extremely powerful.

The large crossbow arrows shot out were thicker than the barrels of guns, almost as thick as lances. When they were shot towards Jiangling with great force, they often caused a huge commotion.

Sure enough, there was a huge noise in the north city of Jiangling, and there seemed to be some chaos.

But it didn't take long before the screams and commotion gradually subsided, leaving only roars, curses and screams.

Jiang Ke sneered, this was just the beginning.

This time, he was more fully prepared than when he attacked Ji'nan City. He was willing to try all possible methods, regardless of the cost.

No one can endure the crossbow bolts and feather arrows falling on their head for long.

When you were patrolling on the top of the city wall, several crossbow arrows shot out and directly crushed the battlements, causing debris to fly everywhere and your forehead to be covered in blood.

Or you may be nailed heavily to the city wall, so that your head and face are covered with dust.

Arrows also flew through the air, making you nervous every moment. You might be hit by an arrow if you were not careful. You would hear news about someone being shot to death or injured by the Liang people while walking.

It may not really kill many people, but the blow to morale is enormous, and if it accumulates slowly, one day the enemy may not be able to bear it and collapse completely.

This is a test of wills and a contest of capital. If Tao Bin cannot respond effectively, Jiangling City will not be able to hold on for long.

The siege lasted all night.

After daybreak, a new group of people took over and did not give the enemy any chance to breathe.

On this day, Zhou Fu, the chief of the Jingzhou government, led his army to the east of Jiangling City. Two thousand barbarians went ashore and attacked the earthen platform, trying to destroy the crossbow carts on it and kill the archers.

However, halfway through their journey, they were defeated by the Silver Spear Left Camp and the Youzhou Cavalry, with more than half of their troops killed or wounded.

The naval forces of Jin and Liang fought again in the east of the city, and the royal army was defeated.

A part of the Yicong Army was active in the west of the city, forcing a naval force of the Jin Army to retreat because they did not dare to send anyone to land.

Overall, same as always.

The two sides continued to attack and defend, to battle wits and courage, and to persist as always, until someone could no longer hold on and collapsed.

(End of this chapter)