Chapter 1787: Yue Fei VS Li Shimin

At the same time that Qin Zheng led the Beiwei army and went south to support Jiangling, the Wuxiang War took an astonishing turn.

The enemies faced by the Qin army in Nanxiang County were mainly 80,000 Tang troops from Wuguan and Hanzhong, and they were led by Li Shimin, the king of Tang.

Li Shimin's original intention was to attack Wuxiang first, and completely cut off the connection between Sizhou and Jingbei in the capture of Nanjun, and then the two kingdoms of Chu and Shu divided the rest of the counties in Jingbei, while Tang took the opportunity to recapture Sizhou on both sides.

Li Shimin's strategic plan was quite perfect, but he underestimated Wuxiang's ability to guard Pei Xingjian, and he didn't expect Yue Fei to lead reinforcements so quickly.

Nanxiang County is adjacent to Hanzhong and Wuguan, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but the disparity between the enemy and our forces is too great.

On the Jiangling side, Meng Hui used 10,000 new and old mixed troops against Liu Xiu's 50,000 army of Chu State.

On the side of Nanxiang, Pei Xingjian used an army of 10,000 against Li Shimin's 80,000 army of the Tang State, and the degree of danger can be seen.

Nanxiang County is the east gate of Jingbei, once Wuxiang County falls, Nanyang County is a flat river, except for a strong city Wancheng, there is almost no other place to defend.

Qu Yuan, the Taishou of Nanyang County, and Mengwu Taishou of Zhangling County, both knew the importance of Nanxiang County, so they sent troops to Nanxiang to support Pei Xingjian Town to defend Wu Township against Li Shimin.

The two counties of Nanyang and Zhangling put together 8,000 troops to support Nanxiang, and this also caused the strength of the county to decline greatly, and the total number of defenders in the two counties combined was only 8,000, but it was precisely because of this that Pei Xingjian was able to hold on until Yue Fei's reinforcements arrived in Wuxiang.

Pei Xingjian, who commanded 96, only had 18,000 defenders in his hands, and in the face of Li Shimin, the Tang king who commanded 100, and the 80,000 elites of the Tang State, even if he wanted to rely on the geographical advantage, he couldn't hold it at all.

In less than half a month, the Qin army retreated in successive battles, and the land of Yexian and other five counties was broken by the Tang army, losing nearly 5,000 troops.

You must know that there are only eight counties in Nanxiang County, and five counties have been captured by the Tang army, and most of Nanxiang has fallen into the hands of the Tang army.

From the time when Yexian County, which was the strongest on the western front, knew that the counties behind him could not hold it at all, so he mobilized a large number of defensive equipment and concentrated his forces to prepare to let go of Nanxiang County.

With the gap in the fall of the five counties as a buffer, when the Tang army came to the city of Nanxiang, Nanxiang had been built into a fortress by Pei Xingjian, and also mobilized the people of the whole city to help defend the city.

Li Shimin also realized that Nanxiang City was not easy to fight, so he only besieged the city first, and then sent Li Yuanba, Zhang Xiu and other generals to take the other two counties, wanting to completely turn Nanxiang into an isolated city, so that it could not see any hope, and then took the opportunity to surrender and give hope to the guards.

Li Shimin played a good psychological warfare, but he ignored that the Pei family and the Qin family were married, Qin Zheng married Pei Cuiyun, the eldest lady of the Pei family, Pei Xingjian was Qin Zheng's brother-in-law, how could he take refuge in Li Shimin?

Li Shimin's persuasion to surrender failed unexpectedly, but he was not disappointed in the slightest, if he did not surrender, then attack the city, anyway, he had the trump card of Li Yuanba in his hand, and he attacked all the way without paying many casualties, and captured the seven counties of Nanxiang.

The rest of the counties in the south, except for Ye County, the city gates are all wooden gates, which can't stop Li Yuanba's hammer at all, and the city gate is smashed under a few hammers, and the army enters the city, and the city naturally falls.

Even Ye County, which has an iron city, because the height of the city wall is relatively low, it is naturally impossible to stop Li Yuanba, and it is very easy for people to climb the city tower, and then under some torture, they killed the defenders of the whole city and lost their hearts, so they naturally surrendered.

Therefore, the Tang army attacked all the way to the city of Nanxiang, and not only did not lose much of its troops, but also collected more than 3,000 Qin troops to surrender, and the strength increased instead of decreasing.

In Li Shimin's opinion, among the eight counties in the south, seven counties were easily broken by him, so Nanxiang City is naturally no exception, even if the Nanxiang City Gate is poured of pure steel, and the city wall is the highest one, it is also impossible to stop his younger brother Li Yuanba.

Li Shimin underestimated the degree of Pei Xingjian's difficulty, and in order to prevent Li Yuanba from ascending the city tower, Pei Xingjian personally commanded 1,500 strong crossbowmen, 100 bed crossbows and 50 catapults, specifically targeting Li Yuanba alone, just to prevent him from ascending Nanxiang City.

In the first battle of the Bohai Sea, Su Dingfang used the crossbow stone henge to kill the great master Yuan Shoucheng, giving all the generals a good start, letting them know that their personal strength was ultimately inferior to the army, and the method of using the crossbow stone to deal with the master was also imitated.

Pei Xingjian has no other way to deal with Li Yuanba, so he can only use resources to smash it, although this will reduce the defense of Nanxiang City, but it is better than letting the Tang Army destroy the city without damage?

Pei Xingjian's strategy is feasible, under the targeting of so many equipment, even Li Yuanba can't come up, and Li Shimin has no choice but to attack the city on a large scale.

The Tang Army, which had fought all the way without much damage, finally met in Nanxiang City and broke the blood.

After all, the Tang army is also one of the strongest armies in the world, and there are only a few casualties, which is not enough to shake the morale, and it still attacks Nanxiang with a fierce offensive.

Under the ten-day onslaught of the Tang army, Nanxiang City was crumbling and could fall at any time, but it was that Yue Fei, who had been reinstated, led 10,000 Sizhou reinforcements to arrive in time.

Yue Fei's timely arrival greatly boosted the morale of the entire Nanxiang army, not only saving Nanxiang City, but also protecting Nanyang in the rear.

After Yue Fei arrived, the atmosphere of the Qin army completely changed, and after Yue Fei arrived, the Qin army had been passively beaten, and he had not thought of taking the initiative to attack, but after Yue Fei arrived, the Qin army was no longer afraid of battle.

Yue Fei arrived on the same day, and personally led a thousand horsemen that night, attacked Li Tang's camp at night, killed thousands of enemies and then left, leaving Li Shimin with a chaotic fire camp, which made Li Shimin shocked and angry.

After that, Yue Fei will let 30,000 recruits be stationed in Nanxiang, so that the defense of the south will be even higher.

You must know that there were a total of 70,000 troops newly recruited in Jingbei, but Yue Fei transferred 30,000 to a city in Nanxiang, and left 40,000 for Xiangyang, which was under more pressure, which shows the importance attached to the Tang army.

After Yue Fei arrived in Nanxiang, with 15,000 main forces and 30,000 recruits, a total of 45,000 mixed new and old troops, Li Shimin's more than 70,000 Tang troops were blocked from Nanxiang and could not advance an inch.

Li Shimin, who commanded 100, and Pei Xingjian, who was on 96, naturally easily defeated and scolded the other party, but against Yue Fei, who was in command of 102, he really had no advantage.

If it weren't for the fact that the Tang army's comprehensive combat power was higher than that of the Qin army, Li Shimin might have been defeated by Yue Fei.

After more than a month of fighting, Li Shimin tried all his means, but he still failed to break through Nanxiang, not only could not help Yue Fei in the city, but also had to guard against Yue Fei's counterattacks from time to time, at this time he finally realized Liu Xiu's despair in the face of Yue Fei.

"It can't go on like this."

Li Shimin angrily hammered the case, and said coldly: "Nanxiang City has Yue Fei in charge, even if it continues to attack, I'm afraid it will still be difficult to break, and if you can't get past Nanxiang, you won't be able to enter Nanyang, and you can't complete the attack on Sizhou from both sides." ”

Hearing this, after the four strategists of Du Ruhui, Li Ru, Changsun Wuji, and Li Kui glanced at each other, the youngest military Li Kui stood up and entered, hugged his fists and said: "Lord, the best strategy is no longer feasible, it's time to give up the best policy and adopt the middle strategy." ”