Chapter 9: Weizhou (4) The Grand Commander Liu Ren'gong's vomiting of blood was strictly ordered to be kept secret, and apart from the Grand Commander's personal guards and several hundred robust soldiers who were present at the scene, no one else knew about it.

  If this news gets out, it will be enough to shake the morale of the Lu Long army, which is already at a disadvantage in the war.

  Three days later, Liu Ren-gong began inspecting various camps under the escort of many military generals.

  He loudly encouraged the soldiers to continue fighting bravely, eloquently talking about his dreams of reviving the great Tang Dynasty, laughing and joking with the lowest-ranking soldiers, patting each brother on the shoulder and vowing to bring them wealth and promotion together... Everything showed that the commander was optimistic about future battles. His high-spirited and positive attitude swept away some of the gloom hanging over the Lu Long army, restoring a bit of vitality to the camp.

  But Li Chengzhong, who witnessed Liu Rengong vomiting blood and falling to the ground, saw his pale face and the tightly locked brows.

  "General is forcing a smile..." Jiang Miao whispered in Li Cheng's ear, "Look at the General's hand holding the horse whip..." Li Cheng nodded silently, he had already noticed that hand resting on the horse's mane, trembling constantly, reminding him of his grandfather who suffered from Parkinson's disease in his previous life.

  Liu Ren-gong forced himself to inspect the military camp, but the stability of the soldiers' morale did not last long before being broken by a message from a southern scout - the Bian army had increased its troops.

  The great general of the Bian army, Li Si'an and Zhang Cunjing, led 30,000 troops and had already crossed the Yellow River. They were now approaching Neihuang and pointing towards Weizhou! "I heard that these soldiers are just the vanguard, and the main force of the Bian army is still behind, advancing slowly," Wang Dalang said with a worried expression, his eyes filled with despair: "The flags are like forests, the war horses are like clouds! I heard that along the way, the smoke and dust are rolling, covering the sky and sun!"

  After that, Wang Dalang, who claimed to repay Li Chengzhong's "one push of kindness", often went in and out of Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao's camp.

  He's a familiar guy, who speaks to Dou Zhangzhong without respect, and is even more unbridled in front of Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao, the two newly promoted team leaders.

  He is very popular in Dooly, but he likes to ask too many questions. As Li Chengzhong said before crossing over, this person is very gossipy.

  "Are there really so many people? Just the vanguard alone is 30,000?" Li Chengzhong asked.

  It has been almost two months since he came to this era, and Li Chengzhong also had a general understanding of the population situation at that time.

  After experiencing the Huang Chao rebellion and many years of military turmoil, the Tang Dynasty had long since lost its prosperous Shengtang atmosphere, with a population that was no longer thriving. Even in the relatively stable Lulong Town, which governed thirteen states and thirty-five counties, this time it took the entire town's strength to launch a southern campaign, with only 50,000 soldiers and 30,000 civilians.

  Even if the Bian army's strength was stronger, it would be impossible for them to withdraw so many troops to head north while fighting on several fronts at the same time.

  So Li Chengzhong had deep doubts about this number.

  Wang Dalang was taken aback and hesitated, saying: "Uh... I also heard it from someone..." "Who did you hear it from?" Li Chengzhong asked.

  "Liu Wu... He and some are from the same village, now serving as a scout in the Grand Marshal's camp."

  He was originally going to join him, but he couldn't make it happen, so he let him come to Jian Zhuo's camp instead.

  "It's really great to be a yanei soldier, they eat well and have good swords, much better than ours... If you can become a jihu, you can even get a war horse, Liu Wu's war horse is really majestic, that's a war horse that can charge into battle, much stronger than the horses raised by some families..." Wang Dalang said, getting off topic.

  The Imperial Guard is the inner guard of the imperial court, belonging to the emperor's personal army, and their treatment is naturally different from that of ordinary people.

  Li Chengzhong coughed, pulling him back from the topic of horses: "Can't we go ask again? How many men does the Bian army have?" Wang Dalang nodded and agreed with a sound before lifting the flap and going out.

  Jiang Miao asked in a low voice, "Li Lang, what's the point of knowing so much?" Li Chengzhong said, "As the saying goes, 'know yourself and know your enemy, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles'!" Jiang Miao sighed, "But what can we do even if we know our enemy? We're just squad leaders now, and we don't have any men under us..." Li Chengzhong's face twisted in distress, unable to speak for a long time.

  When Wang Dalang comes back and tells what he has found out, everything will be clear.

  The Bian army's Li Si'an and Zhang Cunjing command over 10,000 troops, claiming to have 30,000. They are currently stationed in Neihuang. As for whether there will be more Bian army troops arriving later, it is still unknown.

  Although according to Li Chengzhong's estimation, there shouldn't be any more, but just these tens of thousands of Bianjun troops made the Lulong army feel like a thorn in their back, unable to eat or sleep.

  Neihuang is less than 80 miles away from Weizhou, and the army can arrive in one day if it advances day and night. If the Lulong army is attacking the city with all its might at this time, and the Bianjun suddenly kills, the consequences of being attacked from both inside and outside are unthinkable.

  Li Chengzhong thought of this problem, and naturally, Lu Longjun's high-level officials did not dare to ignore it.

  On the second day, Li Chengzhong saw a large team of people breaking camp and heading southwest.

  Wang Dalang, who loved to listen, informed Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao of some definite news: Liu Shouwen, the military governor of Yichang, led his army to Neihuang to meet the enemy.

  Yichang Army only governed Cangzhou, Jingzhou and Dezhou. The governor Liu Shouwen was the eldest son of Liu Ren'gong, the governor of Lulong Army, so in essence, Yichang Army was just a subordinate of Lulong Army. Within the territory governed by Lulong Army, no one considered Yichang Army as an outsider. In the eyes of various vassals across the country, Yichang Army was actually part of Lulong Army.

  Apart from the over 10,000 troops stationed in Yizhangjun, there were also 8,000 Baoding cavalrymen who followed General Shao on his journey and had no use for their martial skills during the siege. The commander-in-chief of these troops was Single Kegong, the military governor of Baoding and Ningyuan general.

  Wang Dalar described Single K's heroic and valiant exploits with flying eyebrows and a vivid expression. As he reached the most intense and thrilling part, he couldn't help but gesticulate wildly.

  Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao were unenthusiastic, and as soon as Wang Dalang finished speaking, they found an excuse to send him away.

  With the departure of General Liu Shouwen to the south, the besieging army seemed a bit thinner, but even so, there were still 20,000 elite troops from the Yanei Army, Shanbei Zidi, Yin Hu Lu Du and various state and town battalions. Together with the several thousand strong camps that had lost nearly half their strength, they still had the power to besiege the city.

  The 8,000 Wei-Bo troops and an estimated no more than 5,000 Bian troops that were originally in the city should also have suffered heavy casualties. The actual strength comparison still favors the Lulong Army.

  The current situation is quite delicate. Lu Longjun is fighting on two fronts, and whether it's Weizhou or Neihuang, the progress of either battle will determine the outcome of this war.

  After the young marshal went south, the central army issued an order to attack Weizhou again! According to Wang Dalang's account, the one who advocated for attacking Weizhou again was Liu Zhiwen, a military strategist of the commander-in-chief's headquarters. This scholar offered a plan called "Earthen City", and it is said that the commander-in-chief highly appreciated it and adopted it immediately.

  Wang Dalang recounted it in great detail, even describing how the general was so excited that he stood up from behind his desk and accidentally tore his clothes, as if Wang had seen it all with his own eyes.

  Li Chengzhong listened with a stunned expression and asked Wang Dalang how he knew so clearly, Wang Dalang said with a hint of pride: "The commander's personal soldiers have someone from the same village!" Jiang Miao blinked his eyes and asked: "Dalang, which village?" Wang Dalang chuckled: "Deep State Wang Family Village."

  Then Liso lifted up the tent and went out, leaving only a handsome back view for the two people in the tent.

  Jiang Miao whispered to Li Chengzhong, "Good hometown party..." Li Chengzhong listened in confusion and asked Jiang Miao, "What's good about it?" Jiang Miao sighed and said, "Our commander is from Dingzhou after all."

  The next day, the whole army began to move, first with silver gourds at the bottom of the city using bows and arrows to suppress the city head, then with civilians piling up earth bags along the previously drawn baseline to build a siege.

  The men of Yan and Zhao are skilled in archery, especially the young men from the mountains, who have lived among the Hu people beyond the passes since childhood and have practiced shooting arrows since they were young.

  Liu Rengong selected the most outstanding 3,000 of them to form an army, equipped with excellent bows and crossbows. In this southern expedition, they demonstrated extremely fine long-range combat capabilities.

  Because these soldiers liked to carve silver decorations on their bows, they were named Silver Gourd Troupes.

  In the siege of Wei State these days, the silver gourds have played a huge role. The soldiers' precise archery skills almost always pressed down the defenders on the city wall, gaining an advantage in the crossfire.

  At this moment, the civilians are building a rampart under the city wall. The silver gourds have successfully suppressed the archers on the city head, greatly reducing the casualties of the civilians.

  After the hard work of tens of thousands of people for just two days, the earth wall began to take shape.

  The earth wall was built on the relatively flat terrain north of the east gate, completely stacked with earth bags, and as high as the city wall, where a dozen people can walk shoulder to shoulder.

  The earth wall extends from 100 zhang outside the city to the edge of the city wall, directly filling over the moat, only three zhang away from the top of the city. This can ensure that the soldiers of the Lu Long army can climb up the earth wall from a safe place.

  To put it simply, this is just a large earth slope leading directly up to the city wall.

  By the fourth day, the battle had become increasingly fierce, with both sides gathering large numbers of archers and crossbowmen to shoot at each other from the edge of the mound, with arrows flying like a swarm of locusts.

  Lu Longjun's soldiers arrived at the front with large wooden boards that had been made in advance to withstand the arrow rain, while the civilians climbed up the earth wall under the cover of the boards and continued to pour down the soil bags.

  The distance between the earthen city and the city head gradually narrowed from three zhang to two zhang, and then from two zhang to one zhang.

  At this time, Lu Longjun also couldn't care about many things, and pushed out the last few arrow towers, directly to the side of the earth slope. Each arrow tower had more than a dozen silver gourd-like archers standing on it, shooting densely at the city head from a height.

  The defenders on the city wall, under a hail of arrows from the Lulong army's silver crossbowmen, threw one by one oil tanks at the earthen city wall and then shot fire arrows, hoping to reuse the old trick, but were covered with mud by the well-prepared Lulong army soldiers.

  The defenders then focused their burning on the large wooden boards at the very front of the earth slope, but these wooden boards were all soaked, and it was not easy to ignite them.

  Some of the boards were finally ignited due to excessive oil stains, but Lu Longjun's soldiers only needed to throw down this board and replace it with a new one from behind.

  Li Chengzhong was lined up under the city, waiting. The Jianzu Camp had suffered heavy losses in the previous battle and was still placed at the back of the attack this time, so he also had the leisure to watch this scene carefully and couldn't help but sigh, thinking that this method really worked. If they had used this method earlier, why would the situation be so urgent now? As the earth wall approached the city head, the civilians retreated down the slope, and large groups of elite soldiers from the government army rushed up to gather on the earth wall.

  As everything was ready, the war drums of Lu Longjun's army suddenly became dense and rapid. The whole army shouted loudly, and the soldiers in the front row of the earth city suddenly put down the wooden boards and directly boarded the city head. Row after row of inner military soldiers rushed through the wooden boards, rushing into the densely packed defenders on the city head.

  Li Chengzhong excitedly watched as the brothers of the Imperial Guard shouted and rushed up the slope, then jumped onto the city wall with their agile figures, his heart boiling with hot blood, and he couldn't help but shout out loud.

  After a month of siege warfare, how many brothers have fallen under the city walls. Now that we are about to achieve great success and break through the city, how can we not be excited! How can we not be stirred!