Beimang's iron hooves passed by Crouching Bow City and Luan He City before being stopped outside Youzhou's pass by Xiaguang City. If they couldn't break through this pass and successfully enter Youzhou's territory, all of Beimang's cavalry troops on the eastern front would be useless.
Outside the city, two Beimang officers on the eastern front were closely guarded by no less than a thousand elite soldiers. They were inspecting the situation at the top of the city walls. Commander Yang Yuanzan sighed emotionally. "The ancients really didn't lie to me. Apart from this city, the mouth of the bottle gourd is already in my hands. However, as long as Xiaguang City is not broken, we will never be able to fight to the death with those thirty thousand Youzhou cavalry troops. "
Zhong Tan, the vanguard general who had just been conferred the title of Xia Jubo by the emperor, laughed. "It's really hard on you, Great General. It's like you're leading a nest of baby birds, crying piteously for food. It's so noisy every day."
The old general laughed. "Once we pass through Xiaguang City, the entire Youzhou will be under our hooves. At that time, it'll be easy to fight. There will be opportunities and military contributions everywhere. However, how much we can stuff into our pockets will depend on our own abilities."
Zhong Tan, who had personally gone up to the city to fight yesterday, was covered in a bloody aura. He said softly, "Now, we just have to wait for Yan Wenluan to bring his Youzhou infantry to fill the gap in Xiaguang City. Otherwise, Xiaguang City will fall in three days at most. "
Yang Yuanzan sneered, "Xiaguang City is not Hutou City. The city is only so big. How many people can stand on the city walls? Yan Wenluan will at most send six thousand people to Xiaguang City to participate in the defense. Any more and they'll only be able to squeeze into the city to watch the show, let alone go to the city walls. "
Yang Yuanzan looked at Xiaguang City in the distance, whose defenses were already stretched to the limit. All of the large ballistae had been destroyed, especially after their infantry had almost destroyed Crouching Bow City and Luan He City. During this period of time, hundreds of catapults had been madly hurling boulders at Xiaguang City. As a result, during this summer, there was a lot of rain above Xiaguang City. Apart from the fortresses on the two sides of Xiaguang City and Luan He City, all of the other strongholds had already been cleaned out by the Beimang cavalry troops who were crazed for military contributions. The beacons at the mouth of the bottle gourd were undoubtedly the first to bear the brunt of the attacks and had long become the best hunting targets. Some of the larger fortresses with slightly more soldiers were also broken through after a few or even a dozen private cavalry troops converged. this, this action, this had saved Yang Yuanzan lot of trouble.
Right now, after Crouching Bow City and Luan He City had been destroyed, the mouth of the bottle gourd was actually very suitable for cavalry to gallop over long distances. It could be said that as long as Yang Yuanzan's army on the eastern front took Xiaguang City, not only would Youzhou be wide open, given the absolute disadvantage of the Youzhou cavalry, the eastern front of Beimang would be able to attack and retreat all the way to the mouth of the bottle gourd to the north of Xiaguang City. No matter how outstanding Yan Wenluan's infantry troops were, how could two-legged infantrymen outrun four-legged cavalry troops? As a result, even though Zhong Tan's infantry troops suffered astonishing losses, with two or three thousand-man squads collapsing miserably every day, the old general who was frowning on the surface was actually not too worried. In the depths of his heart, he even secretly rejoiced in the misfortune of his old friend, Liu Gui, who was in charge of the western front. Back then, Xijing wanted Liu Gui to go to Liu Province, where the Beiliang Frontier Army did not have any strongholds to rely on, but wanted Yang Yuanzan to attack Youzhou, wanting him to lead his troops through the mouth of the bottle gourd, a terrifying region that was said to be capable of burying a hundred and fifty thousand Beimang soldiers. How could Yang Yuanzan not have any complaints? However, looking back now, fortune and misfortune truly came hand in hand. The will of the heavens was hard to fathom.
Out of the corner of his eye, Zhong Tan caught a glimpse of the old general's confident expression. This vanguard general with illustrious military achievements wanted to say something but stopped on second thought. In the end, he swallowed the words back into his stomach and did not voice his conjecture. The reason why he was able to squeeze out Yelu Yuhu and become the new Xia Jubo with less than a year of military service was because of the words of an A-ranked tycoon in the imperial court of Xijing, "Zhong Tan alone has caused the deaths of fifty thousand soldiers of our eastern front army at the mouth of the bottle gourd. It's no different from having fifty thousand more brave infantrymen who are adept at sieging cities and raiding strongholds. How can I not become Xia Jubo?" Logically speaking, as a member of the Zhong family who had leaped to the same level as Xie of the Central Plains and Kou Jianghuai of the Western Frontier and Song Li of the Central Plains should be the most complacent. However, Zhong Tan always felt that the situation in Youzhou was not so simple.
Yang Yuanzan suddenly pointed at the city wall where the situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse. Instead of being alarmed, he laughed out loud and said, "Zhong Tan, look, Yan Wenluan finally can't sit still. I thought this old man had dug a big hole for us in Youzhou. Unexpectedly, he only has this little willpower. I'm disappointed, truly disappointed! "
When Zhong Tan saw the desperate situation at the top of Xiaguang City, he finally felt relieved of a heavy burden.
Xiaguang City's geographical location could be said to be blessed by the heavens. It occupied the only pass at the mouth of the bottle gourd that could allow a large-scale cavalry army to pass through. As a result, the battle here could only be fought head-on. It was impossible for either side to launch a surprise attack. Zhong Tan's troops on the eastern front had recently been able to continuously pour into the city wall. Yesterday, Zhong Tan had personally led eight hundred deathsworn onto the city wall and fought fiercely for less than an hour before they were chased off the wall. When the main battlefield of a siege changed from being ants clinging to the city wall to a melee battle, it often meant that the city was not far from being breached. Most likely because they knew that Xiaguang City was in imminent danger, this was the first time Yan Wenluan's old battalion had appeared on the battlefield at the mouth of the bottle gourd. Zhong Tan urged his horse forward. Without the threat of the ballistae on the city wall, with Zhong Tan's martial cultivation and armor, he did not fear the arrows of the scattered master archers on the city wall.
Zhong Tan raised his head and looked over. Sure enough, a large wave of Youzhou's old battalion infantry had arrived at the top of the city wall. They were wearing the classic 'Swallow Armor', which was meticulously crafted by Beiliang's official craftsmen. This kind of Swallow Armor was composed of 1,500 pieces of refined iron armor leaves, which were then connected with tough leather strips and nails. It weighed more than sixty jin and was not in any way inferior to West Chu's first-rate heavy infantry. Moreover, Beiliang men were naturally superior to West Chu soldiers in physique. The Yan Clan's infantry wore heavy armor and held spears in their hands as they stood in formation. During the Spring and Autumn War, they had once caused the West Chu cavalry to be flabbergasted. The birth of heavy infantry in the Great Feng Dynasty and the formation of the Spring and Autumn Nine Kingdoms was originally the result of large-scale cavalry gradually becoming the main characters of the battlefield. This was especially true after the grassland cavalry became increasingly unstoppable. Since the infantry could no longer compare to the cavalry in terms of agility, they might as well completely abandon mobility and use inaction to suppress the enemy. Of course, heavy infantry were originally not a precious soldier type used to defend a city. It was not purely because fighting infantry with infantry was a waste of talent, but because heavy infantry were simply too heavy. It was not wise for them to engage in close combat at the top of the city wall, where every inch of land was worth its weight.
However, the four hundred Beimang daredevils who had already reached the top of Xiaguang City were practically wiped out by the Swallow Armor in a single exchange.
Zhong Tan turned to a messenger and said in a heavy voice, "Have Zheng Lin lead two thousand cavalry to support the retreating infantry."
On the top of the city wall, life and death were decided immediately.
The Beimang infantry were already pretty much exhausted, but one of them still managed to deliver a ferocious blow with his blade. In the end, the well-armored Yan family heavy infantry raised his left arm and casually swung his blade aside. That old battalion Yan family elite continued to charge forward. The cold blade in his right hand instantly pierced through the chest of this leather-armored Beimang barbarian. Relying on the tremendous momentum, he directly knocked this Beimang soldier against the outer wall. After quickly pulling out his blade, he raised it up with both hands, ripping out a bloody gash from the waist to the shoulder of a Beimang barbarian who had been waiting for an opportunity to hack at his face. Scarlet blood splattered all over this heavy infantry soldier's face, making him look especially sinister.
A Beimang soldier was knocked out of the city through a crack in the wall.
On the top of Xiaguang City, metal armor clanged.
One after another, the bloody heads of the Beimang soldiers were tossed down from the top of the city wall by those burly armored soldiers.
Apart from the soldiers who had climbed up the city wall, no one was spared. When the Beimang siege soldiers heard the drums of retreat, they hurriedly pulled down their scaling ladders. Above them, heads and corpses constantly fell down, as well as a rain of arrows from the archers who had returned to the top of the city wall.
This rain of blood and arrows was Xiaguang City's most powerful answer to the 'rain curtain' created by the Beimang catapults.
Xiaguang City, whose gates had been tightly shut all this time, opened for the first time. A large group of heavily armored soldiers charged out.
On the top of the city wall, the heavily armored Youzhou soldiers slid down the scaling ladders and began a one-sided slaughter of the Beimang soldiers who could not retreat in time.
Like a flood pouring out of the city, Beimang soldiers constantly 'drowned' in blood.
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