Outside Huzhou, the moon stars are scarce. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

During this period of siege warfare, Qian Biao initially adopted a steady and steady approach, first consuming the strength of the defenders, and then gradually increasing the intensity of the attack.

This kind of regular siege warfare can be said to be completely untricked, and it is the morale of both the offensive and defensive sides and the skills of attacking and defending the city. As the besieging party, Qian Biao showed great strength and caused great damage to the defenders in the city.

However, after so many days of fighting, although the two Zhejiang soldiers attacked the city wall many times, they were always a little short, and they were finally driven back by the defenders and could not break the city.

Especially in today's daytime battle, Qian Biao personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, and the morale of the two Zhejiang soldiers was greatly boosted, and under the cover of Suzhou artillery, nearly 1,000 soldiers soon climbed the city wall in one fell swoop, and even completely eliminated the defenders on that section of the city wall, and were attacking in the direction of the city tower.

However, when it was about to succeed, a new force of hundreds of people suddenly came out of the city, although their number was small, but each of them had been recuperating for a long time, and the two Zhejiang armies that attacked the city were defeated and retreated.

At this time, the two Zhejiang armies made a mistake in the follow-up troops, and the follow-up troops led by Du Jianwei failed to climb the city wall in time, which eventually led to failure.

In the tent, the atmosphere was a little heavy.

The generals stared at Du Jianwei one after another, their eyes full of reproach.

As the news of Guangling continued to come, although Qu Zhang and others created some trouble for Huainan in Guangling, they raised the price of grain and burned the granary, and these methods failed to slow down the speed of the Huainan army's dispatch of troops.

Now the Huainan army has set off from Guangling, and it will take five days at most to arrive.

More importantly, with the dispatch of the main force in Huainan, the defenders of Suzhou, Jiaxing and other places were also dispatched, and these troops had been assembled in Wuxi, led by Zhang Kezong, the defender of Jiaxing, and prepared to enter Huzhou from the north through Taihu Lake.

Huzhou is backed by Taihu Lake and is mountainous to the west and south, and Qian Biao only needs to send a small number of troops to guard the road to cut off the reinforcements of the Huainan army on both sides; To the east of Huzhou, Pingchuan is the main force of Qian Biao, and it is also difficult for enemy reinforcements to pass through.

Only in the north, because of the terrain, Qian Biao could only send a 1,000-man infantry army to surround the outside of the city, and then send a 3,000-strong naval army to block Taihu Lake; However, this naval army is small in number, and it is okay to intercept messengers and small-scale reinforcements in peacetime, but if they encounter a large group of enemy troops to reinforce Huzhou, they will have no choice.

Therefore, the current situation can only compete with the enemy army for time and take Huzhou as soon as possible.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a little dull, Qian Biao said in a deep voice: "Generals, in today's battle, because of the problem of cooperation, we fell short in the end. But everyone can see that the defenders are already at the end of their power. So as long as we work harder, Huzhou and Huzhou will definitely be captured! ”

He didn't blame Du Jianwei too much, after all, everyone has a time when they make mistakes, and at this time, pointing at his cronies and generals may cause adverse effects.

"Everyone understands the current situation. Therefore, tomorrow is not only the time of the decisive battle, but also our last chance, and the generals must work together to fight to the death, and must break through in one fell swoop. Do you understand? ”

"The last general obeys!" Everyone promised loudly, and the momentum shook the sky.

At the same time, in Huzhou City, Li Tao, the assassin, was also giving a lecture to his subordinates.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the first thing I want to do is to thank you all for the past 20 days, everyone has worked together to defend the city, and the enemy army has been blocked under the city again and again. Everyone's exploits will definitely not be forgotten by the King and His Royal Highness! I thank you in advance! ”

Everyone present hurriedly returned the salute, and even said that they didn't dare to take it.

During this period of time, Li Tao has won the trust and support of the defenders.

As a veteran, although Li Tao is not well-known in the Huainan Army, he is actually very good at defense. At the beginning of the war, he anticipated the difficulties of defending the city and made preparations in advance.

In order to supplement the lack of strength of the defenders, Li Tao ordered the young and strong people in the city to gather and assist the defenders in defending the city.

In order to prevent the forces of Qian Biao in the city from secretly rebelling, Li Tao ordered a curfew very early, and stipulated that if more than three people gathered together, it would be regarded as a rebellion and could be directly killed.

In order to keep the defenders in order, Li Tao ordered the city wall to be divided into several sections, and one person was assigned to be responsible for each section.

In order to prepare for the most critical moment in the future, Li Tao deliberately left a reserve of 500 people, and at the critical moment of today's battle, it was this reserve team that suddenly came out, which saved the situation.

However, by this time of the fierce battle, the young men and the other 4,500 defenders in the city had suffered huge losses, and now the defenders who could still fight with 500 reserves were less than 2,000 men, and the rest were either killed or seriously wounded, and could not fight again. It was Li Tao's deputy, Wang Yu, the commander of the Huzhou garrison, who was also killed in battle three days ago.

Li Tao said a little heavily: "This official knows that although everyone has defeated the enemy army and the city in the past few days, their own casualties are also very heavy and tired, as evidenced by the fact that the city was almost breached this afternoon." ”

"But what I want to tell you is that with the arrival of the agreed month of time, our reinforcements may arrive at any time. At this moment, Qian Biao outside the city must be in a hurry, which can be seen from their fierce offensive today. So it can be expected that tomorrow's battle will definitely be more intense. ”

"I believe that as long as you dare to use your lives, you will definitely be able to withstand these last few days. When reinforcements arrive, it will be the time when our army defeats the enemy! ”

At this time, Li Tao not only wanted to boost the morale of the defenders, but more importantly, give them hope of victory.

Of course, morale alone is not enough, after all, the defenders of the city have suffered heavy casualties, and they are extremely exhausted, and if measures are not taken, no matter how high morale is, it is useless.

Therefore, Li Tao came up with a new troop deployment plan and made detailed arrangements for all the people in the city who could go into battle; Considering that the main force of Qian Biao's army was in the east of the city, and there were not many enemy troops in the west and north of the city, Li Tao took the risk of transferring all the already small defenders in these two places to the east, and on the city walls in the north and west of the city, he used scarecrows to put on military uniforms and pretend to be defenders, so as to confuse the enemy. In this way, he squeezed out a new force of more than 300 people.

In addition to the redistribution of troops, Li Tao also redeployed various materials for defending the city. After more than 20 days of consumption, there are still enough arrows and other materials, but the materials such as rolling wood and stones are almost consumed; Li Tao ordered that all the houses near the city wall be demolished, and all the bricks, stones, and timber that were removed were piled up under the city and transported to the city for use at any time.

In addition, now that it has reached the most critical time, Li Tao's last killer weapon, three hundred grenades, will naturally no longer be hidden.

Black powder has always been Huainan's secret weapon, and grenades filled with black powder have also been manufactured very early, but for the sake of secrecy, they have not been used in actual combat.

Before the battle of Huzhou this time, Yang Wu specially asked Li Tao to bring 300 grenades, and told him that he could only use them at the most critical moment, so he had not used them before. But now, Li Tao obviously won't hide anymore.

He understood that only by completely thwarting the enemy's offensive attempt in the next battle could Qian Biao understand that Huzhou could not be defeated!

Early in the morning, when the late autumn sun rises again, a tragic siege battle is staged again.

The sound of war drums sounded at the same time in the two large camps inside and outside the city, and a group of two Zhejiang soldiers under the leadership of their respective officers walked out of the camp and lined up outside the gate of the east city.

Under the city, Qian Biao's eyes were full of bloodshots, and he stared at the city in front of him.

Huzhou, which was supposed to be his Huzhou, was personally led by his troops many years ago. He should use this as a bridgehead and constantly challenge Huainan; It's a pity that last year's rebellion in Wuyongdu made it lose here.

When he led his troops again, the enemy army he faced was already different.

After feeling for a long time, Qian Biao raised his arms high, and then struggled to slash down, "Siege!" ”

"Sons, rush with Ben! The first to climb the city wall is rewarded! Kill! As the order was issued, Du Jianwei, who took the initiative to ask for help today, shouted loudly.

The two Zhejiang soldiers who were holding back their strength followed Du Jianwei's pace, pushing various siege equipment, and slowly moved towards the city wall.

At the same time, dozens of Suzhou cannons that remained outside the city also began to launch, throwing boulders into the air and smashing heavily into the city.

In the city, the defenders were accustomed to this scene, and the soldiers had long since lost their initial panic, and took refuge in the dead corners under the city walls with determined expressions.

In the face of the bombardment of Suzhou artillery, they simply did not have any way to counterattack, and could only use this way to reduce casualties.

After a quarter of an hour, only the observation post left on the city wall was heard shouting: "The enemy is coming!"

Then, without Li Tao's order, the officers had already reprimanded their men to climb the city wall.

Unlike usual, this time the enemy did not stop the Suzhou cannon after the siege soldiers approached the city wall, but continued to bombard despite accidental damage.

Under this siege method regardless of casualties, the defenders inevitably suffered large casualties, and the besieging enemy also suffered many accidental injuries.

In this case, whether it was Li Tao in the city or Du Jianwei in the city, they all stood at the front of the team without fear. With them taking the lead, the soldiers on both sides calmed down and prepared to fight.

……

In Taihu Lake, a water war is underway.

The southern land is densely covered with rivers and extends in all directions, which not only facilitates transportation, but also makes the battlefield not only unfold on land, but also make the battle on the water extremely important.

Huainan, as the strongest feudal town in the south, naturally has a strong naval army, although most of the main force went to Ezhou with Li Shenfu's western expedition, but the remaining troops should not be underestimated.

In contrast, because of Qian Biao's late rise and overall strength is not as good as Huainan, coupled with the disastrous consequences of last year's Wuyongdu Rebellion, Qian Biao's naval army is still relatively weak, far from reaching the scale of five or six hundred warships and tens of thousands of naval troops in history.

What's more, the passage into Taihu Lake is just outside Huzhou City, and the big boats in Qian Biao's army can't pass through at all, and only some small boats can enter Taihu Lake.

At this time, in the face of the two Zhejiang armies, which had only more than 3,000 people and less than half of his own, Zhang Kezong undoubtedly chose to attack.

"Although the number of the enemy's naval army is small, the array is tightly organized, and he attacks rashly, but he is afraid that it will be difficult to win. There must be a strong general to be the vanguard and frustrate the enemy's spirit before he can break the enemy. Which of the generals, would like to be this vanguard? ”

"The last will go!" As soon as Zhang Kezong's words fell, a general came out to respond.

"General Su can't monopolize the credit, and the last general is willing to lead his troops as a vanguard!" Another one will be on the line.

Now that the enemy has few soldiers and many of his own troops, it is obviously a good time to make meritorious contributions, and the generals will naturally not let it go.

Zhang Kezong glanced at it and couldn't help laughing: "You generals don't have to fight with each other, everyone has a chance to make meritorious contributions this time." Su Lixin, this time you will be the pioneer! He looked at one of them.

"The last general obeys!" Su Lixin was overjoyed, hurriedly answered, received the military order, and led his troops to attack.

Then, Zhang Kezong personally led the rest of the warships to respond, taking advantage of the wind to rush towards the enemy on the opposite side.

Zhang Kezong was originally a little dissatisfied with being able to serve as a local guard, but this time Yang Wu asked him to lead the defenders of Suzhou and Jiaxing as the vanguard to rescue Huzhou, but he gave him a chance to lead the troops alone, of course, he had to behave well.

Soon, more than 20 small warships led by Su Lixin took the lead in entering the enemy formation as the vanguard, constantly taking advantage of the small and light characteristics of the ships to attack back and forth in the enemy formation, disrupting the enemy's formation.

In less than a while, there was a gap in the formation of the two Zhejiang army fleets, Zhang Kezong was overjoyed, and hurriedly led the rest of the ships to take advantage of the gap to attack. For a time, the shouts of killing and screaming continued to sound on the river.

This was a crushing battle with absolute strength, although the naval armies of the two Zhejiang armies resisted bravely, but after all, their troops were too small, and they were all small boats, and they were condescendingly shot by the soldiers on the big ships of the Huainan army, and in only half an hour, they were scattered and fled.

"General Qiyu, the enemy army has been routed, our army has suffered more than 600 casualties, lost 12 ships, sank 50 enemy ships, and captured 600 enemies. At present, the remnants of the enemy army are fleeing, dare to ask the general, is our army going to pursue? ”

Zhang Kezong shook his head when he heard this, and said: "No need, the main purpose of our army here is to rescue Huzhou, and the destruction of the enemy's naval army is only secondary." Order, leave a small number of boats to salvage the people who fell into the water, and the rest of the boats continue to move forward, striving to reach the city of Huzhou before the afternoon! ”

Saving soldiers is like fighting fire, Zhang Kezong naturally understands this truth, and he will not forget his main purpose because of some remnants of the enemy.