Zhang Kezong's reinforcements naturally couldn't arrive so quickly, they only arrived in the vanguard on a clipper, and the number was only hundreds, and even the 1,000 people left by Qian Di's army in the north of the city couldn't break through, let alone enter the city to reinforce the defenders. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

However, after their battle with the two Zhejiang soldiers under the city was seen by the defenders on the upper floor of the north of the city, it greatly boosted the morale of the defenders.

In just a few moments, news of the arrival of reinforcements spread throughout the city, and in the south of the city, the morale-boosting defenders drove down the enemy troops who had already begun to climb the city walls.

Cheng He, who was in charge of supervising the battle here, heard the news that the defenders in the city shouted "reinforcements have arrived", and his heart couldn't help but sink and feel bad.

However, he did not give up, and as long as enemy reinforcements did not appear on the city walls, he would not give up easily. So the offensive and defensive battles continued.

And in the east of the city, for Qian Biao, this is his last chance, and he will not give up easily. So after a short rest, the second round of siege operations was also launched. As for the casualties and the fatigue of the soldiers, they were not taken into account at this time.

"Kill, take the city, everyone will be rewarded! Those who enter the city first will be rewarded with thousands of dollars and promoted to three levels! ”

"Hold off the enemy! Our reinforcements have arrived, just outside the city, and they will be able to enter the city in half an hour at most, brothers hold on a little longer! ”

Both sides on and off the city had already exerted their strength, and the fierce siege battle continued until the sun went down.

There were several times in the middle that Qian Biao's army had already rushed to the city wall, and even began to attack the city tower; However, inspired by the news of the imminent arrival of reinforcements, the defenders burst out with great courage, coupled with the deterrence of the great lethality of the grenades, and they withstood the enemy attacks again and again.

Finally, when the sun set, Zhang Kezong's reinforcements finally entered the city, and some of the reinforcements had already climbed the city wall to replace the original defenders.

Looking at the more and more defenders on the city wall, under the city, Qian Biao's hand holding the horsewhip became stronger and stronger, and the green tendons protruded in his hand, he knew that it was impossible to break through Huzhou today, or rather, this time the crusade against Huzhou had failed.

"King, we can't attack anymore, our army is now sleepy and lacking horses, if we continue to fight like this, when the main force of the Huainan Army led by Yang Wu arrives, our army will be in danger at that time." Beside him, the generals persuaded one after another.

Qian Biao knew better than anyone at this time that there was no point in continuing to attack, and now it was time to withdraw his troops. Although he felt unwilling, he was not old and confused after all, and he would not act rashly at this time.

"Mingjin retreats! Let Chengji also retreat, as well as our troops in the west and north of the city, let them withdraw. Qian Biao waved his hand a little tiredly.

With the sound of a rapid sound of gold, the two Zhejiang soldiers who were still besieging the city withdrew like a tide.

On the city wall, those Zhang Kezong's reinforcements were only happy, cheering for their victory, but the defenders who had been fighting for more than 20 days were crying with joy one by one at this time. Many soldiers sat on the ground and wept, unable to believe that the battle of Huzhou was over.

It was a long time before the defenders began to celebrate their victory.

"Is it finally over?" Li Tao was also in a trance.

At the beginning of defending the city, whether it was him or Yang Wu and others who were far away in Guangling, they all felt that it was not difficult to hold on for a month, after all, there were 5,000 defenders in the city, Huzhou was a strong city, the moat was wide and deep, and before coming to Guangling, Yang Wu also specially prepared 300 grenades for him, so at the beginning, he was full of confidence in holding on for a month.

In fact, in this era, under such defensive conditions, there are not a few examples of the besieging side spending months unable to break the city.

However, Li Tao and Yang Wu ignored one point, that is, Qian Bi's determination.

For Qian Biao, Huzhou is too important, get it, Qian Biao has the hope of continuing to survive, lose it, Qian Biao can only be trapped in a corner, and then die out in the next step of the Huainan Army's attack.

Therefore, in order to conquer Huzhou, Qian Biao was willing to pay any price, including the huge casualties suffered during the siege.

Huzhou siege battle, only more than 20 days, the two Zhejiang army lost more than 4,000 people, in addition to more than 6,000 wounded soldiers, such a large casualty, if it was under other circumstances, the siege war would have been stopped, but Qian Biao did not, but gritted his teeth and insisted, this is the reason why Huzhou has been in crisis many times.

But in any case, now Qian Biao has no hope of breaking the city and has begun to retreat. The next question is not whether Huzhou can be defended, but whether the Huainan Army can wipe out the 30,000 taels of Zhejiang soldiers who went north this time in one fell swoop.

South of Changxing County.

The army led by Yang Wu marched rapidly all the way, and arrived here in only three days, and by this time it was only thirty miles away from Huzhou.

At this time, even though it was late, Yang Wu still insisted on rushing overnight.

"Shizi, we have been marching in a hurry for the past few days, and now the soldiers are tired, and even some soldiers have fallen behind, and if we go to Huzhou like this, even if our army arrives in Huzhou before dawn, we may be defeated by Qian Biao! Moreover, didn't General Zhang Kezong already lead his troops to rescue Huzhou? We don't need to be in such a hurry, the army must stop and rest! On the side, Qin Pei persuaded loudly.

"I'm not worried about whether Huzhou can hold it, I'm worried about whether I can bite Qian Biao's army." Yang Wu shook his head and said, "Zhang Kezong's reinforcements have been set off for a few days, and now they may have arrived in Huzhou." In this case, Qian Biao will definitely realize that there is no hope of capturing Huzhou, so what will he do next? If I were him, I would have withdrawn overnight! ”

As soon as the words fell, a messenger from the front hurriedly came and delivered a document: "Your Highness, this is sent by Li Envoy Jun of Huzhou. ”

Yang Wu took it and looked at it, and said lightly: "Huzhou is already safe, and Zhang Kezong rushed to the city when the sun set in the afternoon." ”

Qin Pei heard this: "Shizi, since Zhang Kezong has arrived, with him leading his troops to contain him, plus the cavalry of the two generals Shi Yan and Hou Zan is watching from the side, even if Qian Bi withdraws his troops overnight, the speed will not be fast!" Let's take a break and move on! ”

"Don't take any chances! Although there are more than 6,000 people in Zhang Kezong's department, they are all state soldiers from Suzhou and Jiaxing, most of them are old and weak, and it is okay to defend the city, and they may not be able to hold Qian Biao. Yang Wu still shook his head: "And if Qian Biao is allowed to go back safely, then when the siege began, the general could have sent reinforcements to relieve the siege of Huzhou, why wait until now?" ”

Although at the beginning of September, the integration of the Guangling army was not completed, and the grain and grass were not stored enough, at that time, an army of 10,000, or even thousands of troops, was dispatched, and as long as the Taihu Lake entered Huzhou along the waterway, the siege of Huzhou would be lifted.

However, in that case, Qian Biao will also retreat immediately, which means that when Yang Wu sends troops to the south in the future, he will have to deal with an additional 30,000 enemy troops!

That's why Yang Wu waited until this time to send troops to relieve the siege, the purpose was to use Huzhou to drag Qian Biao, consume Qian Biao, and then find an opportunity to eliminate him in one fell swoop!

In order to achieve this goal, he had to be fast, to catch up with Qian Biao as quickly as possible before he completed his retreat, and for this reason, even if the army was tired, he could not care.

"Tell Zhang Kezong to let him lead his troops to drag Qian Biao, if he let Qian Biao slip away, he will be asked!"

Under the city of Huzhou, after Qian Biao hastily gathered his troops, he decided to withdraw his troops overnight.

Although he is not a famous general like Li Shenfu and Gu Quanwu, he is also a veteran of the battlefield, and his decisiveness on the battlefield is still very strong, so when there was no hope of breaking through Huzhou, he quickly accepted this fact, and immediately adjusted his deployment, arranged for Cheng and led his troops to break off, and began to withdraw his troops.

In the city, although Yang Wu's military order had not yet been transmitted here, Zhang Kezong was still keenly aware that this was a good opportunity to hit Qian Biao hard, so he didn't care about resting, and also went out of the city overnight to pursue.

South of Huzhou, thirty miles, Donglin Town.

Donglin Town is just a small town, with a population of less than 1,000, and there is no city wall, so a landlord in the town has built a dock fort to prevent possible bandits.

At this time, the town was extremely quiet, and a full 2,000 cavalry were stationed here, causing great panic among the local people, and every family closed their doors and windows, fearing that they would be killed by the war.

"General Shi, do you think Qian Biao will choose this path to retreat? What if he takes the eastern road? ”

The person who spoke was full of beard, holding a horsewhip, and wearing a general's armor, and looked extremely capable. Opposite him was a middle-aged man in white armor. These two people are Shi Yan and Hou Zhan.

At the beginning, the two were ordered to go south to harass and contain Qian Biao, so that he could not attack the city with all his strength. However, because Qian Biao was prepared in advance, he sent a large army to be distributed on the periphery, responsible for cutting off the road and blocking reinforcements, and as a result, it was difficult for the cavalry led by the two to get close to the city.

However, the purpose of containing Qian Biao was achieved, after all, Qian Biao had to send a large army to intercept it, which itself dragged down a lot of Qian Biao's troops.

Therefore, Hou Zan and the others did not choose to fight hard in the face of the two Zhejiang armies that occupied a geographical advantage, but wandered around the periphery, looking for an opportunity to attack. It's a pity that the waterways in the south of the Yangtze River are crisscrossed, and the grain, grass and baggage of Qian Biao's army are transported by water, even if they want to attack its grain routes, it is difficult to succeed.

Fortunately, Huzhou finally held on, and now the main force of Huainan is about to arrive, Qian Biao withdraws his army, and on the march, its defense will definitely decline, and then the opportunity for cavalry will come.

"General Hou rest assured that the main force of our army can arrive at any time, at this time, Qian Biao will definitely choose the nearest road to retreat, if he chooses the road to the east, he will have to walk at least fifty miles more, which will make his withdrawal more dangerous!" Shi Yan said with a smile.

Choose the place of Donglin to ambush Qian Biao, firstly, because this is the only way to go south to Hangzhou, and secondly, it is only thirty miles away from Huzhou.

"The order goes down, and all departments must remain vigilant and ready to go at any time!"

ps: There is another chapter in the evening, and today it is also 10,000 words.