Jinzhou was a place of long battles. Shi Yanchao had also fought a bloody battle here. Now Xiang Gong was standing on the top of the city.
Xiang Gong held his head high, his left hand on the sword, and took a deep breath in the wind. The wind seemed to carry the breath of war, but at the moment he could not see or hear anything.
Whether Murong Yanzhao would quietly open the city and surrender to the Jinzhou Army was all in his hands, Zhang Jianxiong said softly.
The atmosphere was already very tense. Li Jixun's vanguard troops were less than 200 miles away from Jinzhou. Xiang Gong had military power and was in charge of the frontier deployment of Hedong and Hebei, and controlled all border troops from Hedong to Hebei, but he only had 2,000 Zhen'an troops under his command, which were his own troops.
After a long time, Xiang Gong turned his head and said: No, I would believe anyone Murong Yanzhao surrenders to; but he is unwilling to surrender to Li Jixun because Zhao Kuangyin may be in Li Jixun's army.
Zhang Jianxiong may not understand the mess in the generals' circle, but Xiang Gong knows a lot. Xiang Gong has never been in the imperial army, and the highest position he held was a local governor. However, after Wang Pu recommended him to participate in the war against Shu, he entered the power circle in Tokyo and knew a lot of things.
After Zhao Kuangyin came to power, his attitude towards Gao Huaide and Murong Yanzhao was similar. Gao Huaide was kicked out of the Palace Guards Department and Murong Yanzhao was transferred from the Palace Guards Department to the local Jiedushi. Xiang Gong was not very clear about the specific gap in between, but he could guess the process from the actual results.
Zhang Jianxiong was worried again: This battle is difficult. The lord only has 2,000 cavalry, and Murong Yanzhao may only have 7,000 or 8,000 soldiers. I don't know what he is thinking. Li Jixun will be at the gates of the city soon, and Li Chongjin has also arrived in the territory of Northern Han. They must be coming for us. In total, there are 60,000 troops attacking Jinzhou.
Xiang Gong said: Although Li Jixun has three cities, all his soldiers and horses add up to no more than 20,000. He may have temporarily brought along some messy people with him to such a large army. Li Chongjin has only 7,000 to 8,000 garrison troops, mainly the Gan De Army incorporated from the surrendered soldiers of Huainan. The Huainan Army is not bad in combat effectiveness but slightly worse in loyalty. Li Chongjin is slightly stronger than Li Jixun.
No matter how you calculate it, they have five or six times more troops than us, Zhang Jianxiong sighed.
Xiang Gong said in a very affirmative tone: Guo Shao will come to save me.
It is possible, but Guodu Dianjian has just taken office and Tokyo is too busy to take care of itself, so I don't know when he will come. Zhang Jianxiong said.
No, you don't understand him. Guo Shao will definitely provide reinforcements in time. Xiang Gong shook his head and said thoughtfully, "Guo Du Dianjian is a man who is very good at seizing opportunities. I was deeply impressed by the rescue of Shi Yanchao at Xinkou. He is also a man who is very good at cooperating with his companions. At that time, Xinkou was in danger and surrounded by enemies. His brother was invincible, but if Guo Shao hadn't been by his side, he would have died a thousand times.
Xiang Gong seemed to be trying to convince himself, muttering: I believe he can see the situation in Jinzhou and will cooperate with me tacitly.
Zhang Jianxiong still insisted: If Inspector Guo doesn’t come, we will be completely finished.
A few days later, Li Jixun's troops approached the city. Xiang Gong and Murong Yanzhao locked themselves in and refused to come out. Li Jixun camped ten miles west of the city, neither approaching nor surrounding the city, and the number of troops besieging the city was slightly insufficient.
Apart from occasional skirmishes among scouts in the wild, there were no signs of fighting between the two armies.
At this time, Zhao Kuangyin had already arrived at Li Jixun's central army. The two sighed and lamented, saying that the world has changed.
After a while, Zhao Kuangyin stopped talking nonsense and asked hurriedly: Brother Li, I gave you the recipe and asked you to prepare the gunpowder. Is it ready
Li Jixun said: "It has been prepared and filled with twelve coffins. Charcoal is easy to get, sulfur is a little more difficult, and the hardest thing to get is saltpeter. Fortunately, it is not far from Guanzhong. I sent people to Guanzhong more than two months ago to contact dealers to buy it with a large sum of money; the dealers successively transported some from Hanzhong and Longyou, and after several trips back and forth, they finally got enough weight.
In the battle of Shouzhou, Guo Shaoli issued a military order to capture the city within a month, all thanks to this thing. Zhao Kuangyin said, Jinzhou City is strong, and Brother Li’s troops are insufficient, so siege is the worst option. You can try to send spies in to contact Murong Yanzhao and try to sow discord, while preparing to use gunpowder to blow up the city. If the explosion is successful, Brother Li’s troops will have more than twice the advantage.
Li Jixun said: If we can’t break through, we’ll have to wait for Li Chongjin to arrive.
Zhao Kuangyin nodded and said, "That's right. If Li Chongjin joins the attack, we can each take half of Jinzhou as a retreat. If Brother Li captures Jinzhou alone, you occupy Jinzhou and ask Li Chongjin to attack Jiangzhou in the south. But it's better to capture Jinzhou quickly to avoid reinforcements from Tokyo. After capturing Jinzhou, immediately send troops to the southeast to reinforce the defense of Zezhou. That place is close to Taiyue Mountain. If it is properly defended, it will be easy to spend a few months.
The next day, Li Jixun and Zhao Kuangyin began to deploy siege works in an orderly manner. There were more than 40,000 people in total, but only 20,000 of them were garrison troops; more than 10,000 were local militia composed of able-bodied men and prisoners from various places. The local militia had insufficient weapons. Almost everyone had only a long spear or a short sword and a wooden shield, and no armor at all. The rest were forced laborers and even women, who were used to transport food and work.
Li Jixun's troops did not plan to surround the city from all sides. They first divided the main force of 20,000 people into three camps, stationing one camp on each side of the west side of the city; and stationed 3,000 cavalry five miles southeast of the city.
Then they drove the able-bodied men and prisoners to build fences and trenches in front of the west gate, and gradually advanced to the foot of the city, with three layers of fortifications; heavy troops were stationed on the west side. There were also some craftsmen busy working in the camp to build various tools such as catapults and ladders.
Jinzhou's area of dozens of miles had been looted; Li Jixun first plundered the three cities of Heyang, then occupied Jiangzhou, which was short of troops, as a rear guard, and then plundered the outskirts of Jinzhou and Jiangzhou because they had no reliable source of supplies.
For a moment, the open space outside Jinzhou City seemed to be a construction site for a palace. The sounds of sawing wood, banging, and people carrying wooden pestles to tamp the earth filled the air, creating a busy scene.
On both sides, however, flags were flying like clouds, and soldiers and horses were lined up in battle array, but they did not move. Looking from afar on the tower, several generals were walking back and forth on the wall, and many soldiers were standing on the wall, but the defenders did not fire a single arrow, because no matter what kind of weapon they had, they could not reach the construction site outside the city.
Behind the fence, eight tunnels had been quietly dug, using houses, tents and trenches as cover to prevent people in the city from seeing where the tunnels were.
Zhao Kuangyin rode to the entrance of a tunnel and looked around. He turned around and saw Li Jixun, so he rode forward and said: When we reach the fence in front, we will dig holes upwards, one for ventilation, and the other for determining the position; after that, we will dig a hole only a hundred steps below the city, and then find a hidden place in the middle to dig a small hole, so we don’t have to worry about the direction being too far off. At night, we will secretly ask someone to take a rope to measure the distance of the city wall, and dig the tunnel just under the wall.
Li Jixun said: During the Battle of Huainan, Brother Zhao was in Yangzhou, but he knew the tactics of the Battle of Shouzhou so clearly, which is really admirable.
I don't know how Guo Shao dug it, but it should be similar. Zhao Kuangyin said, digging tunnels to hide gunpowder is the same as the old hole attack method. The hole attack method also needs to be dug into the city and dug farther. There are many generals in the army who know how to attack the hole. There are also other considerations, such as wooden supports to prevent collapse. If you know how to dig, you can't make mistakes.
Li Jixun said: Brother Zhao will be in charge of the bombing of the city.
Then I will obey your order. Zhao Kuangyin bowed.
It was a sunny afternoon, the air was crisp and clear, but the ground below the city was filled with dust. Xiang Gong stood on the tower and carefully observed the fortifications below. He had no intention of taking the initiative to attack yet.
The deployment was very rigorous, unlike Li Jixun's style. Xiang Gong said without turning his head that when Li Jixun was in Huainan, he wanted to attack Chai Kehong's reinforcements, but because of his carelessness, he fell into an ambush by Chai Kehong's weak troops and was defeated. He was not a careful person at all. Zhao Kuangyin should have joined Li Jixun's army.
The bearded and round-eyed man next to him was Murong Yanzhao, the governor of Jianxiong Army. When Murong Yanzhao heard Zhao Kuangyin's name, his expression changed slightly.
Xiang Gong was much fairer, with a flat face, regular features, and a light beard. Xiang Gong remained calm, but he could see Murong Yanzhao's expression from the corner of his eye.
General Murong Jie looked over there and pointed forward.
Murong Yanzhao said: The dust is too thick, I can't see anything.
Look carefully at the new soil behind the fence. Towards the archway, Zhao Kuangyin is digging a hole.
Murong Yanzhao frowned and said.
Xiang Gong said: Hole attack is too difficult. I think Zhao Kuangyin wanted to copy the example and use gunpowder to blow up the city. In the famous Shouzhou battle, Guo Du Dianjian used gunpowder to blow up the city wall. Zhao Kuangyin may have got the method, so Zhao Sanlang used gunpowder when he plotted to assassinate Guo Du Dianjian in Datong Temple Inn.
"Hey, General Xiang knows a lot. I have heard about the story of the third son of the Zhao family, but this is the first time I have heard the inside story of the assassination," said Murong Yanzhao.
Xiang Gong said: More than 2,000 cavalrymen of the Zhen'an Army under my command will be deployed on the main road west of the city. In case a gap is blown open, the Zhen'an Army will be the first to quickly plug the gap; then Marshal Murong Jie will see the opportunity to reinforce me.
Murong Yanzhao bowed and said: I will obey the orders of the commander-in-chief.
Xiang Gong said again: "In this case, the defense of the city depends entirely on Jianxiong's army. Once the city is breached, all lives will be lost, and you and I will die without a burial place. I hope General Murong Jie will defend the city to the death."
Murong Yanzhao's expression stiffened, and I took a half step back and brought the head to see him.
After hearing this, Xiang Gong turned back and said, "Zhang Jianxiong, immediately send people to seal off the main east-west roads of Chengxi Hengda Street and issue a notice that these two roads are no longer accessible. Anyone who blocks the troop movement route will be executed on the spot."
Zhang Jianxiong clasped his fists and said:
I'm asking for a monthly ticket