"Dong! Dong! Dong … "
"Kill …"
"…"
The attacking rhythm of Zhang Ji's army was slowed down and they almost fell into a state of retreat. However, Zhang Ji's soldiers were not weak. After the generals came out to maintain the situation, the situation of Zhang Ji's army stabilized.
Under the rumbling of the war drums, Zhang Ji's soldiers launched another attack on Tong Pass.
This time, they had to start from scratch. The bamboo ladders, battering rams, and a small number of siege weapons that Zhang Ji's men had invested in were all used up by the rolling stones and logs.
On the other hand, Zhang Ji's troops had learned their lesson from charging into the city. In order to prevent the rolling rocks and logs on the city wall from causing concentrated damage again, Zhang Ji tried to slow down the pace of the attack and reduce the density of his troops. It seemed that he was preparing to slowly wear down the defenders of Tong Pass.
If Zhang Ji knew the number and strength of the defenders in Tong Pass, he probably wouldn't have used this method of attack so easily. As for whether he would continue to attack the city or not, that was still unknown.
However, the information on the battlefield was not equal. Previously, Yang Rui had a rough idea of the situation of Zhang Ji's army. However, Zhang Ji knew almost nothing about the situation of Yang Rui's men in Tong Pass!
It was not that Zhang Ji's soldiers were bad at collecting information. Zhang Ji, who had the Xiliang cavalry, was even more convenient than Yang Rui in searching for information. The problem was that his range of activity had always been limited to the east of Tongguan.
Yang Rui's men had been operating west of Tong Pass ever since the start of the storyline. At this time, Zhang Ji did not even know that Yang Rui was operating in Yongzhou.
"Dong! Dong! Dong … "
"Kill …"
"…"
Below Tong Pass, Zhang Ji's drumming never stopped. Occasionally, it would be activated. It was not that Zhang Ji's troops were not risking their lives trying to break through the pass. However, the pass was too steep. Even without the interference of the defending troops, just climbing up the pass was not an easy task.
Furthermore, Yang Rui's troops had not stopped attacking. Although the hunting bow in his hand was not powerful, he was able to fully utilize the geographical advantage of Tong Pass.
Apart from the attacks of hunting bows, the moment the bamboo ladders were placed on the walls of Tongguan Pass, they would be pulled down by the hooks of the guards. Such a situation had been happening all over the walls of Tongguan Pass.
"Beat the gong! Retreat! "
When it was close to noon, the drumming in Zhang Ji's formation stopped. Zhang Ji gave an order, and the soldiers who received the signal to retreat let out a sigh of relief. They quickly retreated from the checkpoint like a tide.
In the process, some of Zhang Ji's men were still shot down by the arrows. By the time Zhang Ji's men retreated, the area to the east of Tong Pass was already covered with a thick layer of corpses and dropped items.
In the entire morning, Zhang Ji's troops launched four to five waves of powerful attacks, but in the end, they were all pushed back by the rolling stones and black logs on the city wall.
After suffering a setback in the first wave of attacks, Zhang Ji had thought of boiling the frog in warm water. He wanted to reduce the concentration of his troops and slowly wear down the defenders. However, such an approach was clearly not feasible.
Yang Rui had quite a number of soldiers in Tong Pass. Even though only a small portion of them participated in the defense of Tong Pass in order to confuse the enemy, Yang Rui's men could easily rotate among themselves due to the steep terrain of Tong Pass. That caused Zhang Ji's strategy of attrition to fail.
After that, Zhang Jicai once again adopted a method of concentrated attacks. After four or five waves of attacks, they were met with the concentrated attacks of rolling stones and black logs. Every wave caused heavy losses. This was the reason why Zhang Jicai retreated in such a tragic manner.
Yang Rui could roughly estimate the losses of Zhang Ji's men based on the regional storyline points he had obtained.
In just half a day, Yang Rui had obtained close to a million storyline points. If all of them were Fifth Grade soldiers, Yang Rui had lost over twenty to thirty thousand men!
In addition to the considerable amount of points that Yang Rui had obtained earlier, Yang Rui was now firmly at the top of the regional storyline leaderboard. He was two to three orders of magnitude behind the other players on the leaderboard.
Apart from the current regional storyline, Yang Rui's withdrawal from the border tribe storyline due to the arrival of the Xiongnu had not yet ended. Yang Rui's points were still at the top of the leaderboard.
Moreover, there were no other players that could threaten Yang Rui's position at the moment. Even if the difference was only one or two orders of magnitude, it was still not something that could be easily caught up. As such, Yang Rui should be able to maintain his position at the top of the leaderboard if nothing unexpected happened.
Naturally, Yang Rui could not possibly go and pick up the gold coins and equipment below Tong Pass. There were bound to be plenty of powerful skill books for soldiers among them. In comparison, the Xiliang army was already very strong.
"Uncle, the situation at this pass is rather strange. I tried to force my way into the pass before you arrived, but I didn't expect there to be more than one general guarding the pass. The ones I fought with were definitely stronger than I was.
Moreover, the soldiers guarding the pass are not ordinary either. Uncle, you have broken through the pass several times in half a day. Have you ever seen a soldier fall from the pass after being killed? "
Within Zhang Jiyan's tent, a tall and slender general was speaking to him.
This person was the one who had fought with Taishi Ci the day before. Judging from the content of his words, he was undoubtedly Zhang Ji's nephew. He was one step closer to the identity Yang Rui had guessed.
"You mean …"
"Right now, something is very strange in Tong Pass. Uncle, why don't you find another way to go around Tong Pass and go to Chang 'an City? It's not entirely impossible …"
"Where can we go around?"
"In the Spring and Autumn Period, during the war between the Qin and Jin Dynasties, the Qin army crossed the river from Pu Ban City and won a great victory. Although Pu Ban City is deserted now, as long as we have enough ships, it's not hard to cross the river. "
"…"
In Zhang Ji's tent, after a series of discussions, Zhang Ji decided to give up the plan of attacking Tong Pass. Instead, he decided to retreat to Feng Yi County through Rui City, Yongcheng, Pu Ban City, and then Chang 'an City.
Zhang Ji made this decision because the information he had was incomplete. If he knew that all the surrounding waterways were under the complete control of Yang Rui, he probably wouldn't have made this decision.
Of course, Zhang Ji's decision was understandable. Besides, in the later part of the story, in order to keep the plot moving forward, Yang Rui had secretly spared Zhang Ji's army. But this was a story for later.
"Master, Zhang Ji's army seems to have retreated."
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