Chapter 694: Hard Times! (Thanks to the book friend next door Lao Wang has ascended for the reward!)
Yunbing, Pingrong County

"Brothers, kill them! The commander said that the first person who rushes into the city will be rewarded with 500 taels of silver and promoted three levels!"

"The Fengwu Army's bunch of bastards can't hold on any longer! Brothers, follow me into the city and kill them all!"

"It's time to serve Lord Shangguan! Capture the leader of the Fengwu Army alive!"

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Amidst deafening shouts and cries of killing, the Hujie Imperial Guards, who had been fighting bloody battles outside Pingrong City for ten days, now launched another attack on the scarred Pingrong County under the scorching sun at noon with more than ten thousand soldiers holding shields and carrying ladders.

At the same time, in the position of the Hu Jie Imperial Guards, more than 20 Zhengdong cannons roared to cover the infantry's siege of the city. However, perhaps because the Zhengdong cannons' aim was not good enough, or the artillerymen operating the cannons were not skilled enough, only more than ten shots from the more than 20 cannons hit the city, and the rest either missed the target or did not reach the city wall.

Amid the huge shouts of the Hujie Imperial Guards, the Fengwu Army guarding Pingrong County seemed very quiet. They seemed to be waiting for something. Time passed quickly, and the charging Hujie Imperial Guards were getting closer and closer to the city!
Just when the soldiers of the Hujie Imperial Guard rushed to within a hundred steps of the city, a hoarse voice was heard from the city wall of Pingrong County.

"Fire!"

As this voice appeared, the Fengwu Army soldiers who had been ready for a long time immediately loaded their guns and pulled the triggers skillfully. The Fengwu Army soldiers who were operating the red cannons also lit the fuses with torches, and the shells whizzed towards the enemy's advance...
Although the Hu Jie Imperial Guards had suffered greatly from the Fengwu Army's artillery fire in the previous siege operations and had deliberately dispersed their soldiers during the charge in order to reduce casualties, most of the Imperial Guards who were at the forefront still fell in a pool of blood when faced with the intensive artillery fire from the Fengwu Army on the city wall.

Although the artillery fire of the Fengwu Army was very fierce, the Imperial Guard was indeed one of the most elite armies of the Great Zhou. Although the troops in the front row were killed or wounded, the soldiers in the back continued to rush forward one after another, stepping on the corpses of their predecessors, and constantly using bows and arrows and muskets to fight back against the Fengwu Army.

On the city wall, Tang Kai, deputy general of the Sixth Division, used his hoarse voice to constantly command his soldiers to defend. Although Tang Kai tried his best to command and did not want the enemy to climb up the city wall, under the fierce attack of the Hu Jie Imperial Guards with their concentrated superior forces, the ladders of the Hu Jie Imperial Guards were still placed on the city wall of Pingrong City. The western city wall, which had been half collapsed by enemy artillery fire, once again became the focus of the enemy's attack.

As the two sides got closer and engaged in close combat, although the Fengwu Army's firearms still caused considerable casualties to the imperial guards, it was obvious that the effect was not as good as before. Parts of the battle even turned into brutal hand-to-hand combat.

Looking at the anxious battle situation in front of him, Tang Kai's expression became a little impatient. In order to make up for the shortage of troops, he personally brought a dozen of his personal soldiers and cooks with him to carry weapons. Wherever the battle line was in danger, he would go to make up for it...
In such a fierce battle, dozens of soldiers fell every second. Just when more and more imperial guards climbed up to the top of the city, for some unknown reason, the Hu Jie imperial guards who had gained the advantage suddenly retreated like a tide.

The answer to the puzzle was soon revealed. It turned out to be a team of more than a thousand Fengwu cavalrymen who rushed out from the rear of Hujie's Imperial Guards. The Imperial Guards were caught off guard and were unable to resist, and their formation was thrown into chaos.

However, the Imperial Guards were very well-trained. Soon, under the leadership of their general, they began to encircle the army, preparing to swallow up the Fengwu Army cavalry that suddenly appeared.

The general leading the Fengwu cavalry was very self-aware. He knew that he only had a thousand men, which was not enough to confront the tens of thousands of imperial guards outside Pingrong City head-on. So he was as slippery as a loach and took advantage of the fact that the Hujie Imperial Guards had not yet completely encircled them. He found a loophole and killed his way out and sneaked into Pingrong County.

"I, Luda, greet General Tang!"

Lu Da, the cavalry commander of the 3rd Division of the Fengwu Army, bowed and saluted to show his respect when he saw Tang Kai approaching.

Patting Luda on the shoulder, Tang Kai said excitedly:

"Good brothers, get up! You guys are here just in time. If you had come a little later, I'm afraid Pingrong County would not be able to be defended! Since you are here, has the commander already killed Wang Muzhi and is coming to the south to beat up that bastard Tang Peng?"

Listening to Tang Kai's question, Lu Da looked a little embarrassed. After hesitating for a moment, he told the truth:
“Reporting to General Tang, the commander is still leading his troops and confronting Wang Muzhi’s troops across the Sanchuan River…”

Tang Kai was stunned at first, then looked a little disappointed. After thinking for a moment, he continued to ask Lu Da:

"If that's the case, why are you here?"

Luda said without hesitation:
"The commander heard that the treacherous minister Shangguan Hongyuan had issued a death order to Tang Peng, requiring him to make progress on the southern front and capture Pingrong County on the 17th. He knew that your troops were in great danger, so he specially ordered my troops to rush to support you. Originally, I was planning to disrupt the enemy's food supply and plunder the enemy's troops, but seeing that the enemy's offensive was getting more and more fierce, I rushed out to contain the local offensive!"

Tang Kai's expression remained unchanged upon hearing this, but his heart sank. Just as he was about to say something, Lu Da seemed to have remembered something and said to Tang Kai apologetically:

"General Tang, the situation in Wankang County is also very difficult, so my troops may have to go there to help..."

Tang Kai's heart sank to the bottom of the valley after hearing this, but he was still tough and didn't say much. He patted Lu Da's shoulder and instructed his men beside him:

"Prepare water, dry food, and fodder for Brother Lu and the others!"

"Thank you General Tang for your kindness!" Half an hour later, Lu Da led the cavalry out of the city and rushed towards Wanhao County. Standing on the top of the city wall, watching the backs of Lu Da and others leaving, Tang Kai shook his head slightly. According to the pre-war combat deployment, their Fourth Division was deployed on the southern line of Jinzhong City. After discussing with Peng Ce, the general of the Fourth Division, he, the deputy general, made a division of labor.

He, Tang Kai, led two battalions of 7,000 people to garrison in Pingrong County, while Peng Ce led three battalions to garrison in Wankang County. The two sides responded to each other although they were a hundred miles apart...
The Battle of Yunbing had been going on for nearly twenty days. Except for the first few days, when the enemy army dreamed of advancing through the center, cutting off the connection between Jinzhong City and the outer county towns, and then defeating the outer county towns one by one, for the remaining ten days or so, the enemy army had been launching fierce attacks regardless of casualties. Under such a fierce attack, every day was torment for the troops defending the city.

Up to now, among the more than 7,000 people in the two battalions stationed in Pingrong County with Tang Kai, 2,000 were killed in action alone, and among the remaining 5,000, more than 1,000 were injured, hundreds of whom were seriously injured, accounting for nearly half of the total number of casualties. And the most important point is that because the enemy saw that the Fengwu Army's firearms were powerful some days ago and the casualties in the frontal attack were too heavy, they also adopted the tactics of earth attack, hoping to sneak into the city by surprise.

Although the soldiers defending the city eventually thwarted their conspiracy, blew up their tunnels, and buried hundreds of imperial guards alive in the tunnels, they did not expect the enemy to dig tunnels to attack the city, so the enemy soldiers who came out of the tunnels ignited the gunpowder depot in the west of the city.

Although Tang Kai led his troops to put out the fire with all their might, the explosion still took away nearly half of the gunpowder in the city and made a section of the west city wall extremely fragile. After the imperial guards outside the city realized this, they concentrated all their artillery fire to blast a gap in the west city. As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. When a ship is late, it encounters headwinds. It happened to drizzle these days...
Although spring rain like this is very good for crops, the humid weather brought by rainy days makes a lot of gunpowder damp and unusable. Therefore, the gunpowder supply under Tang Kai has become increasingly tight. This is why today, when resisting the enemy's siege, Tang Kai ordered his soldiers to wait until the enemy is within a hundred steps before opening fire, even though he could kill the enemy from a hundred steps away.

Although with the help of Luda today, he was lucky enough to turn danger into safety and save the city, but Tang Kai knew very well in his heart that given the current situation of Pingrong City, he could not hold on for much longer!

Maybe the city will fall tomorrow, or maybe it can hold out for two or three days, anyway, it will only be in these few days!

Thinking of this, Tang Kai couldn't help but sigh. Before today, he had been looking forward to the commander-in-chief being able to annihilate Wang Muzhi's troops in Sanchuan River, and then return to support their Third Army on the southern front and wipe out all the enemies on the southern front under the city.

But now it seems that he might have been too optimistic. The combat effectiveness of the Imperial Guards is obviously higher than that of the Yan Army, Yu Army, and Qi Army he had encountered before. They are the strongest opponents the Fengwu Army has encountered since entering the Pass!
What should I do next?

Should we continue to defend it or think of some other solutions?

It is not a pity that Tang Kai died alone, but what should his brothers do?

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Jiyu, Shenzhou, Zhennan Army Central Camp
"Reporting to the Lord, a battalion of 5,000 reinforcements from the enemy's 6th Division has arrived at Pingqiao County. General Gao's troops were repelled by the enemy and suffered nearly 1,000 casualties!"

Walking to Xu Zhaojie's side, Liu Zhaohu whispered:

Upon hearing the news, Xu Zhaojie couldn't help but frown slightly. Then, he shifted his gaze from observing the sand table to the coordinates of Pingqiao County on the sand table.

Like Yuan Song before, after realizing that Ye Mingsheng was preparing to deal with him, Xu Zhaojie did not think of retreating, but wanted to have a good fight with Ye Mingsheng. Although Xu Zhaojie was very confident in his command ability, it would be very difficult to fight the Fengwu Army when he was at a disadvantage in terms of manpower, artillery, and cavalry!

The only way Xu Zhaojie could think of was to use the fortified city to stop the Fengwu Army. Therefore, in his plan, he intended to take Shenzhou as the center and then capture Pingqiao County and Shangzhou. Any two of these three areas would support each other, and the three areas would form a stable triangle. Attacking any one area would expose the flanks to the Zhennan Army.

In this way, even if the Fengwu Army reinforcements arrived, they would have no better way than to attack by force. In this way, the enemy troops could be confined to the territory of Hebei and Henan, rather than being allowed to rush into Anqing and affect the spring farming plans of the people of Anqing.

In order to complete this plan, Xu Zhaojie stepped up the offensive against Shangzhou and Pingqiao County. He successfully captured Shangzhou yesterday. He thought that Pingqiao County would also be successfully captured in the next two days as planned. However, Xu Zhaojie never expected that the Fengwu Army reinforcements would arrive so quickly...

Although Shenzhou and Shangzhou could support each other and form a defense line to protect each other, it was obvious that the failure to capture Pingqiao County made Xu Zhaojie's plan imperfect. Although it was a bit regrettable, Xu Zhaojie knew that he had no chance to capture Pingqiao County. After 5,000 Fengwu troops rushed to support Pingqiao County, if he wanted to capture Pingqiao County now, he had to lead the main force himself to do it.

And that Yuan Song is now waiting in Fengqiu for me to reveal a flaw so that he can kill me!
I can't give him this opportunity!

Thinking of this, Xu Zhaojie shook his head and instructed Liu Zhaohu:

"Let Gao Song lead his troops to withdraw to Shangzhou and let them build fortifications there. The Fengwu Army's heavy artillery is very powerful. They must defend Shangzhou for half a month. If they lose Shangzhou within half a month, he won't have to come back to see me!"

As soon as Xu Zhaojie finished speaking, a lieutenant general hurriedly walked into the tent and handed a battle report to Xu Zhaojie.

"My Lord, this is an urgent report from General Wang Songhe of Anqing!"

Xu Zhaojie had a bad feeling when he heard this, and he immediately opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. A few seconds later, a blush suddenly appeared on his fair face, and he saw what was clearly written on it.

The enemy's 4th Army and 7th Division of Fengwu Army, totaling 50,000 people, rushed into Anqing from the north, and captured two county towns in three days. They are now only a hundred miles away from Anqing City. I am personally leading the troops to stop the enemy, but please send reinforcements as soon as possible, otherwise Anqing City may be surrounded,·································

(End of this chapter)