Chapter Fifteen: Futile Efforts
On the morning of June 16th, despite Li Mi's strong opposition, Yang Xuangan, who had half of his right ear shot off, still insisted on launching a siege against Luoyang's Shunyang Gate, where he had suffered a great humiliation the day before. Pei Hongce and Chen Yingliang, the uncle and nephew duo responsible for defending the gate, also faced their first real test in the battle to defend the city.
There were also many talents in Yang Xuangan's rebel army, and several of his younger brothers, Yang Xuanting, Yang Xuanzong, Yang Jishan, and Yang Wanshuo, were all exceptionally skilled warriors. The military strategist Li Mi was wise and resourceful, and Yang Xuangan had received guidance from his father Yang Su on military matters, having participated in the great battle to quell the rebellion of Han Wang Yang Yan. He was well-versed in both literature and martial arts, and with the assistance of Wang Zhongbo, a veteran general who had served under Yang Su, the rebel army's strength was actually far superior to that of the eastern capital's garrison, which was led by a group of civilian officials.
This is reflected in the military appearance of the rebels, although they were a hastily assembled mob that had been formed for less than half a month. However, under the leadership of Yang Xuangan and other rebel leaders, they were organized into a well-structured force with clear ranks and files. They followed the system of the Sui dynasty's fu bing (militia) in organizing their troops, with every 50 soldiers forming a team, led by a team leader; two teams formed a brigade, led by a brigade commander; two brigades formed a battalion, led by a battalion commander; and four battalions formed an army, led by a general. Each army had different colored flags, making it easy to distinguish between them and facilitate command. The formation of the troops was also very neat and tidy, almost indistinguishable from a regular army.
In contrast, the well-equipped Eastern Capital garrison seemed somewhat disorganized. Despite having city walls and a moat for protection, the soldiers on the city walls appeared quite flustered, with some leaving their posts to confer with each other in huddles. Orders took a long time to be carried out, and preparations for defense were slow to progress. Pei Hongce was so anxious that he jumped up and down, scolding his military deputy, General Xie Zichong, until he was covered in sweat. Xie Zichong himself was so anxious that he personally wielded a whip to lash soldiers and officers who disobeyed orders, only barely managing to complete the deployment of troops on the city walls before the rebel army finished forming up.
Although he was angry and eager to send troops, Yang Xuangan still calmly accepted Li Mi's suggestion, arranging 2,000 soldiers into two teams to pretend to attack the nearby Anxi Gate and Huian Gate, tying up the garrison at these gates and forcing the Eastern Capital garrison not to concentrate its main force on the Shangchun Gate.
Chen Yingliang had originally hoped to show off his skills in this battle and once proposed to Pei Hongzhi that he lead a team as a rescue team, ready to fill the gap at any time. However, this request was flatly rejected by Pei Hongzhi, who cited two reasons: one was that it was too dangerous, and the other was that Chen Yingliang had no military position, making him afraid that the soldiers would not obey him if he were to take command immediately. Chen Yingliang had no choice but to stay by Pei Hongzhi's side and continue to serve as his advisor.
At the time of Si, the rebel army's preparations for the siege were complete. Yang Xuangan immediately ordered the launch of the attack. Amidst the sound of war drums, the first batch of 2,000 rebel soldiers lined up and exited the city in units of schools, divided into two waves. The first wave consisted of five schools, each maintaining a distance from one another. The four schools on either side carried makeshift trench cars and pontoon bridges, while the central school carried several large logs, aiming directly at the East Spring City Gate.
As the rebel army approached slowly, the atmosphere on the city wall became increasingly tense. Including Commander Pei Hongce and Xie Zichong, they were all so nervous that they seemed to be able to hear their own heartbeat. Chen Yingliang was slightly nervous at first, but as the rebel army approached, he calmed down completely, as if he was born accustomed to such scenes. He began to think calmly about various possible changes and suggested to Pei Hongce: "Uncle, our soldiers are too tense, we must prevent them from shooting arrows randomly, which would waste arrows and affect morale. We should issue an order that no one is allowed to shoot without the drumbeat."
Chen Yingliang's nephew, Pei Hongce, nodded in appreciation and immediately dispatched messengers to spread the order. He also arranged for drummers to be ready. Chen Yingliang further suggested: "To be on the safe side, Uncle should wait until the rebel troops approach within eighty steps before giving the order to fire arrows. If the first wave of arrow rain is effective, it will greatly boost the morale of our army."
"Good." Pei Hongce nodded again and whispered, "Xianzhong, follow closely behind your uncle. If you have any good ideas, speak up immediately."
Chen Yingliang nodded in agreement and continued to observe the rebel army's movements. As a result, Pei Hongce also listened to his advice, and when the rebel army approached within 100 paces of the city wall, despite being tense with sweat on his forehead, he still gritted his teeth and did not order the drums to be beaten. The rebel general leading the attack was very experienced and immediately ordered a full-speed charge, instructing the rebel soldiers to raise their coarse shields to protect their faces and chests as they rushed through the area covered by the defenders' arrow fire at the fastest distance.
Some of the defending archers could not withstand the enormous psychological pressure, and they couldn't help but shoot their arrows first. However, the arrows they shot were not only off-target, but also soft and powerless, flying only 50-60 paces before falling to the ground. Chen Yingliang cursed silently at Huangfu Wu's well-trained soldiers, but he didn't have time to deal with those archers who had fired out of turn.
"Uncle, we can shoot now!" When the rebel vanguard charged within eighty steps, Chen Yingliang immediately pulled on Pei Hongzhi's sleeve. Pei Hongzhi, who was so tense that he was sweating profusely, finally came to his senses and shouted: "Beat the drums! Release the arrows!"
Boom, boom, boom, boom! The war drums beat rapidly, and the tense defenders' archers fired arrows in a disorderly manner to cover each other. Although many of the feathered arrows were weak and inaccurate due to tension, there were too many of them. Dozens of feathered arrows randomly shot into the rebel army, killing or injuring over ten rebel soldiers. One arrow miraculously hit a rebel lieutenant right in the face, causing him to scream and fall with a bloody face, leading to chaos among his 200 soldiers behind him.
"Shoot well! Release the arrows! Keep releasing the arrows!" The harvest far exceeded expectations, and Bae Hong-cheol was so delighted that he even forgot to be nervous. His thunderous voice was only giving orders, and when he saw the arrow rain taking effect, the archers on the city wall also gained great confidence, quickly drawing their bows, loading arrows, and shooting them out. The released arrows showed significant improvement in both power and accuracy.
"Huh?" At the same time, Yang Xuangan and Wang Bozhong, who were watching from a distance, couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. None of them had expected that Pei Hongce, who was at a disadvantage, could remain so calm and composed, achieving such great results with just the first wave of arrows.
The rebels were in high spirits, and despite the threat of arrows from the city walls, they risked their lives to charge to the edge of the moat, jumping into the water to build a floating bridge. Among them, a group of rebel soldiers held up shields and charged directly onto the stone bridge, carrying large logs to ram the city gate. The defending archers shot arrows frantically to stop them, but they were too far away and their marksmanship was mediocre, so they had little effect.
Chen Yingliang wasn't worried about the first wave of rebels attacking the city, with the defenders having ample supplies and being able to hold out even if they just used rotten wooden planks to defend the gates. What he was concerned about were the thousand or so rebels hiding in the distance, who not only had ladders for scaling the walls but also seemed to be better equipped, likely being the main force of the rebel army. Chen Yingliang was extremely worried that if even one of these main force rebels managed to climb up onto the city wall, given the defenders' weak close combat abilities and low morale, it could lead to unpredictable consequences.
The hail of arrows continued, but to little effect. The rebel soldiers worked swiftly under the arrow fire to construct a pontoon bridge, using the only two siege carts they had to span the river. Occasionally, a rebel soldier would be hit by an arrow and fall screaming into the moat, but compared to the expensive feathered arrows fired by the defenders' archers, the effect was still disappointingly low.
It was the city gate that gained more, Chen Yingliang's suggestion to set up four night watchtowers here played a huge role, and when the hundred-pound night watchtower with sharp thorns all over its body fell down, it immediately crushed two rebel soldiers to death, causing one of the battering rams to fall to the ground. The constant falling sheep head stones also caused significant damage to the rebel soldiers, and more than a dozen rebel soldiers soon lay dead in front of the gate, which also made the battering ram behind dare not approach the city gate.
The rebel army carried eight floating bridges, six of which were successfully set up, and two trench cars also successfully set up a more stable river crossing bridge. Yang Wanxiao, the younger brother of Yang Xuangan, who was in command of the first wave of the attack, made a decisive decision and immediately ordered the five schools behind him to launch a charge. The defenders at the Chunmen Gate also faced the most dangerous test of the siege.
The subsequent battle was even more brutal, with the high-spirited rebel soldiers carrying flying ladders and rushing forward, charging through the arrow rain across the moat, and successively setting up the flying ladders on the city wall without even removing the bark. Then, they climbed up while shouting and trampling on the ladders. At this point, Chen Yingliang's accumulated military knowledge and his belly full of bad water had completely lost their effect, and everything could only be left to the performance of the defending soldiers under Pei Hongce and Xie Zichong.
What a relief to Chen Yingliang was that, although the morale of the defending soldiers was not high enough, the East City Wall, which was over 14 meters high, still helped the defenders a lot and created great difficulties for the rebel army. Even if the rebels had excellent climbing skills, they could not climb up to a height of over 14 meters in the blink of an eye on the rough flying ladder. During their ascent, the defending soldiers had enough time to throw out several sheep's head stones and stone ash bottles at them. At such a close distance, the accuracy was greatly increased, but the rebel soldiers were unable to dodge on the narrow flying ladder. Many climbing rebels were soon hit by sheep's head stones and fell off the ladder, screaming and dying or being seriously injured on the spot.
At the same time, Pei Hongzhe's military deputy Xie Zichong also proved that he didn't rely solely on flattery to climb to the high position of Tiger Tooth Lang Jiang. He commanded soldiers in groups of ten to lift and move battering rams to strike the rebel flying ladders, and indeed knocked over several ladders, causing the rebel soldiers on them to fall back along with the ladders, plunging into the moat and suffering heavy casualties.
It wasn't without danger, at least one flying ladder was not knocked over, and the rebel soldiers on the ladder were not knocked off. The rebel soldiers who climbed up the flying ladder once reached a position level with the city wall. Seeing this, Chen Yingliang was so anxious that he directly drew his knife and rushed up. At this moment, two long spears stabbed out in time, one of which directly pierced the eye of the first rebel soldier to climb up, killing him instantly without allowing him to set foot on the city wall. Then, under the pressure of their commanders and the supervisors, the other defending soldiers rushed forward with a loud shout, using stones and ash bottles to knock off the remaining rebel soldiers on the flying ladder. Only then did Chen Yingliang breathe a sigh of relief, having been worried about the close combat ability of his troops.
Yang Xuangan's attack on the city was clearly unprepared, with only two mobile bridges that could cross the river, eight pontoon bridges, and only fifty or sixty flying ladders that could be used to climb up. Even the bows and arrows needed to suppress the defenders were in short supply. This doomed Yang Xuangan's attack from the start. The rebel soldiers who followed him suffered greatly as they faced the defenders who held the absolute geographical advantage. They were unable to fight back, only able to withstand the beating, with no way to vent their anger. All they could do was repeatedly set up the rough flying ladders against the city wall, charging forward like moths to a flame, only to be met with stones and pottery jars falling from the sky like rain and hail, as well as occasional giant logs and boulders that crushed them, resulting in countless deaths and injuries, yet making no progress.
As the situation unfolded, the previously tense defenders gradually calmed down and were able to shoot arrows steadily as they had been trained. The chaotic situation slowly improved, and even inexperienced lower-level commanders could choose their own tactics without relying on orders from above. In short, the actual combat level was rapidly increasing, and everything was developing in a stable and orderly direction.
On the contrary, the rebel soldiers who had been full of morale and determination, believing they could easily storm the city walls and drive out the killing defenders like driving ducks, were now in a state of panic, with their morale plummeting. Since the start of the rebellion, there was an unprecedented phenomenon of fleeing backwards. The battering ram team, which had been entrusted with great expectations by Yang Xuangan, was particularly miserable. The four large battering rams they carried across the river were barely able to strike the city gate a few times before being smashed to the ground by the continuous barrage of stones and wooden beams from the top of the city wall. The rebel soldiers who lifted the battering ram were heavily killed or injured, and later on, no one dared to lift the front end of the battering ram, resulting in a significant reduction in striking power, making it even more impossible to cause damage to the solid city gate.
Upon seeing this scene, Pei Hongce had thoroughly calmed down and burst into loud laughter, patting Chen Yingliang's shoulder and laughing: "My wise nephew is indeed clever, he guessed that the rebel army's siege weapons were insufficient, they would definitely try to ram the city gate, so I suggested to Uncle to install the night watch drum above the city gate, and it really had an amazing effect!"
"Uncle is overpraising." Chen Yingliang hastily showed humility, saying: "Actually, in this regard, the greatest credit goes to Uncle. If it weren't for Uncle's trust, and if I hadn't been able to change the position of the night watchman from a suggestion, even if I had made a good suggestion, it would have been useless."
"Haha, you're still a smooth talker! From now on, if you have any good ideas, just tell your uncle, and as long as your uncle thinks they make sense, he'll definitely adopt them! You're a genius! A genius!"
This uncle and nephew pair, who were in cahoots with the wolf, were completely at odds with each other. At the same time, Yang Xuan, the leader of the rebel army, was already raging like thunder. If it weren't for Li Mi and Wang Bozhong holding him back, Yang Xuan would have definitely sent more troops to join the attack. Li Mi grabbed hold of Yang Xuan, who was eager for revenge, and said: "Chu Gong, we can't deploy any more troops! Our siege equipment is severely lacking, sending more troops will be useless, it will only increase unnecessary casualties! In our current situation, we absolutely cannot afford to lose a battle with over a thousand casualties!"
"So tell me," Yang Xuangan bellowed, "how are we going to capture this city of Luoyang now?"
"Chu Gong, it's hard to cook without rice!" Li Mi replied with a bitter smile: "I still say the same thing, Chu Gong. If you must capture this city of Luoyang, we should first attack Jinyong City and force Fan Zigai to send troops to rescue it. If he sends troops, we'll have the opportunity for a field battle; if not, Jinyong City will be isolated and defenseless, with insufficient fortifications and garrison compared to Luoyang. Our chances of taking Jinyong City are great. Once we take Jinyong City, we can obtain the military equipment and supplies stored within, build heavy siege engines, and then attack Luoyang with more confidence."
Although he understood that Li Mi's tactics were the right way, Yang Xuangan still refused to give up. He looked at the distant battle raging at the Shangchun Gate and touched his bandaged right ear again. Yang Xuangan shouted orders: "Go and pass on the order to Yang Wanshuo, continue attacking the city! Whoever climbs the wall first will be rewarded with a thousand pieces of gold! As long as one soldier can climb onto the city wall, just one soldier, we'll have hope for breaking into the city today!"
Yang Xuangan's hope indeed existed, with the morale and determination of the rebel soldiers, as long as one soldier could rush up to the city wall, there was a great chance of holding on until subsequent companions continuously rushed up to the city wall, then seized a section of the city wall stronghold, winning the hope of breaking into the city.
But this was also a doomed hope, under the repeated impact and trampling, the rebel army's hastily made siege ladders began to be damaged one after another, breaking and shattering, becoming unusable, the tools that the rebel soldiers could use were getting fewer and fewer, casualties continued to expand, while the defending soldiers who occupied the geographical advantage became more and more relaxed, more and more confident, sufficient defensive weapons also played a huge role.
Finally, when the makeshift sixty flying ladders were left with only a dozen or so, and the corpses of the rebel soldiers also lay under the Spring Gate, Yang Xuangan's finally had no choice but to issue the order to sound the retreat, accepting his first defeat since the rebellion began. Due to Yang Xuangan's refusal to give up, he delayed issuing the order to sound the retreat by more than half a day, resulting in the rebel soldiers paying a heavy price of nearly two hundred casualties, increasing the number of casualties in this battle by almost double, ending the previously unstoppable offensive in vain, and dampening the morale and fighting spirit.
