In June, the riverside is hot and humid, and the heat is steaming, like a steamer.

The camp of the rebel army outside Baling City stretched for more than ten miles, and it was almost impossible to see the border at a glance from the head of the city. Under the scorching sun, there were few people and horses walking around the camp, and the whole camp was filled with a pungent and pungent rancid smell.

The smell was not caused by the mud of the fish and turtles in the river, but by the rotting corpses that could be found everywhere in the camp.

As early as the middle of last month, the rebel army had run out of food and grass, but Baling City, which was surrounded by them, was still rock solid. In addition, the season turned into midsummer, and the epidemic in the army became epidemic again, so that a large number of soldiers died in the chaotic army.

The rebels did not have strict camp laws, because there were so many soldiers who died of hunger and disease that many corpses were discarded in the camps. In this hot and hot summer environment, the corpses quickly decomposed, attracting and breeding a large number of mosquitoes and flies, which gathered in the camp all day long, further exacerbating the spread of the epidemic.

There were many dead and wounded in the army, and the morale was low, and Hou Jing lived up to the same high spirits as he had when he conquered Yingzhou before, sitting and drinking in the big tent every day, and no longer ordered the soldiers to attack Baling City.

The army of the Western Expedition advanced to this point, and it was only one step away from Gangneung. If the largest military town in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River can be conquered in one fell swoop, then it is not enough to rely on a corner of Shuzhong and other sporadic rebellions.

However, if we are trapped in the current situation and cannot make new breakthroughs, then not only will Jiangling be stubbornly ill, but the downstream situation will also be in turmoil. At that time, it may be very unlikely that such a large army will be mobilized, and it will even suffer a huge counterattack.

At this point, Hou Jing really didn't want to give up. But now that the army is running out of food and morale is low, and then attacking Baling will only accelerate the consumption of morale, and even if the small city of Baling is captured, it will be difficult to make up for the consumption, and the division is tired and old, and it is no longer enough to persist in a series of battles.

Up to now, Hou Jing can only hope that Ren Yue, who had led the elite troops to the west first, would be able to make a big breakthrough in Jiangling and repeat the reversal of the previous Battle of Yingzhou. As for Baling, it is not easy to maintain the current situation here.

However, Hou Jing's good fortune seemed to have come to an end, and soon several horsemen galloped into the camp, extinguishing his last bit of hope.

"Qi, King Qi, our army and our army were defeated in Chiting, and General Ren was also captured by the enemy army......"

After several of the forwards fled back to the camp, they were introduced into Hou Jing's tent, and even tremblingly reported the news of the rout.

When Hou Jing heard this, his eyes suddenly bloomed, and he needed to hold the case with both hands to sit firmly, and said in a deep voice: "Even if Ren Yue is not a rare and famous general, but he has many meritorious deeds to be called if he moves with me to the north and south, but he doesn't want to be defeated by the silent Wu Er, is it not the will of heaven that still pities the Liang family?" ”

Although Hou Jing was discouraged and disappointed at this time, he also knew that the situation had suddenly become dangerous, and if he responded wrongly, I am afraid that even he would be difficult to return to Jiankang safely.

So he cheered up, muttered a lot, and then ordered: "Immediately gather all the battalions and soldiers to storm Baling City!" ”

At this time, the situation in Baling City was also not very optimistic, and the difficulties faced by the enemy troops outside the city were also tormenting them, and there was a sense of panic that they were trapped in the lonely city and did not know when reinforcements would arrive.

Previously, Hou Jing's rebellious army had caused great casualties to the defenders in the city for several days, and it was only by virtue of the general Wang Seng who was not afraid of his own danger, his day and night patrol of the city to boost morale, coupled with exquisite command, he defeated and disintegrated the enemy's offensive again and again, and persisted all the way to the present.

However, even Wang Shengbi could not solve the situation of the gradual shortage of grain and grass in the city and the spread of the epidemic, although the enemy's offensive was weakening during the previous period, the morale of the city was also extremely low due to the large number of non-combat attrition.

At this time, the fierce sound of drums and horns sounded again in the enemy camp outside the city, which immediately frightened the soldiers and civilians in the city, and even some people couldn't help but let out desperate cries. The days of siege had taken their toll on them, and their current state was probably no longer enough to withstand the enemy's wolf-like onslaught.

At this time, the high-pitched drums also sounded in the city lord's mansion, and under the arch of the front and rear guards of honor, the main general Wang Shengbi once again appeared in front of the frightened military and civilian masses in the city, and shouted loudly to the people: "The soldiers of the chaotic army are tired and the army is approaching, so they will not attack for several days." Today's re-attack is by no means a regain of courage, but a desperate escape, fearing that I will pursue at the tail of the tail, and pretend to be a gesture. All I have to do now is hold on to the city, and soon the siege will be over! ”

When the soldiers heard Wang Sengbi's words, hope gradually rose in their hearts, and they went to the city to fortify under the distribution and dispatch of Wang Sengbi. And Wang Seng Bian also used practical actions to express his determination to stay with the city, and directly set up his guard of honor in front of the enemy's attack, wearing battle armor to face the enemy's offensive.

The military drums outside the city sounded several times, and it took more than half an hour for the battalions to assemble one after another, and under the leadership of various generals, they converged to the big tent of the Chinese army, and then they were assigned to the front line of the siege.

Hou Jing did not supervise the battle under the city this time, just as Wang Shengbi guessed, his main purpose of attacking the city this time was not to desperately try to conquer Baling City, but to pave the way for the withdrawal of troops.

The organization of the rebellious army is chaotic, even Hou Jing himself can't know it well, especially after being trapped here for many days, Hou Jing doesn't know how many soldiers are left in the camps. If you evacuate rashly, the situation will be chaotic and difficult to control, and if you add the counterattack and pursuit of the defenders in the city, the army will also collapse and be difficult to defend.

Therefore, he wanted to use the siege of the city as an excuse, on the one hand, to deter the defenders in the city and make them dare not attack without authorization, and on the other hand, to check the living forces of the battalions and withdraw from the battlefield as organized as possible.

The main general himself has no fighting spirit, this time the offensive is naturally weak and weak, the soldiers and civilians in the city have already been encouraged by Wang Shengbi, at this time to see that the intensity of the enemy's offensive is really not as good as before, so they are also in a state of mind, and they are brave enough not to let the enemy have any chance to break through the city defense.

Several attacks were fruitless, the rebels withdrew to the camp one after another, and in the evening the camp also lit fires, but except for a small number of stoves for the governors to eat, the other stoves were nothing more than cooking aquatic plants caught in the river.

After nightfall, Hou Jing took the lead in leading thousands of elites from his headquarters to evacuate the camp and go east along the river. Immediately, all the generals also led their troops to evacuate one after another, and when the last group of men and horses evacuated, they directly set fire to the camp, and some of the remaining camp tent armor and the corpses of the camp guards were immediately burning.

When the king of the city heard the report of the soldiers, he also hurried to the top of the city, and when he saw the fire spreading outside the city and the thick smoke of the enemy camp, he couldn't help but laugh, waved his fist and slammed it on the city wall and laughed: "This battle is decided!" ”

With the defeat of the vanguard of the rebellious army, Hou Jing burned the camp outside Baling City, which not only relieved Baling City, but also meant that Hou Jing's western expedition ended in failure.

When the news spread, the sergeants and people of Gangneung City couldn't help but be overjoyed, and the haze that had been condensed overhead for days dissipated in an instant.

And the king of Xiangdong was also overjoyed, and directly gave the king monk who was holding Baling and blocking the main force of the rebellious army from attacking Jiangling, and gave him the honorary title of general of Zhengdong, and the other generals also had their own rewards, and ordered the troops to launch a counterattack to the east under the leadership of Wang Sengbi, intending to recover the lost territory in one fell swoop.

Xiao Jing, the king of Liang, who was mourning for his sixth uncle in Xiangyang, couldn't help but have mixed feelings in his heart for a while after learning the news, both happy and unwilling, jealous and so on.

He didn't expect that when Yingzhou was defeated and Wang Sengbi's army was trapped in Baling by the rebellious army, Jiangling still had the spare strength to defeat the vanguard of the rebellious army and ensure the safety of Jiangling. It can be seen that Gangneung's military strength is far more powerful than he imagined, and if he did not listen to Li Tai's persuasion at that time, but insisted on continuing to march, there is a high probability that he will also hate Gangneung outside the city.

At the same time, he also knew that after such a big victory, the prestige of the king of Xiangdong would inevitably be more prosperous, and he had no possibility of competing with it, so he couldn't help but sigh angrily: "The family and country are in trouble, and the Jiangnan catastrophe is just to make this slave famous in the end!" ”

Compared with King Liang, who is full of envy, jealousy and hatred, Li Tai's mind is much simpler. He still stayed in Shicheng in order to wait for this turning point, when Wang Seng Bianhui and Zhu Lu went along the east of the river, he also led the Jingzhou and Xiangyang naval divisions to the south along the Han River, and when Wang Seng Bian conquered Zhucheng and recovered the lost territory, he immediately received the results of the battle.

Of course, in order to prevent Xiao Laoqi from repenting, he also ordered Gao Le, He Ruodun and other generals to lead 5,000 elite cavalry to enter Wuning City with Liang Shiyan, and the lance went straight to the Tianling cover in Jiangling.