r18novel Page 416
Page 416
During these three months, all affairs in the four provinces were progressing in an orderly manner. Under Zhuge Liang's tireless efforts day and night, Liang Province not only absorbed the refugees but also trained a new army.
Recruiting soldiers in places like Western Shu and Qingzhou is also underway. Li Chang'an needs to expand his forces, as the most pressing need in the fight against Northern Mang is manpower.
Li Chang'an arrived in Liangzhou and began to personally prepare for the war against the Northern Barbarians, because Zhong Shentong's various signs in Youzhou indicated that the Northern Barbarians were about to launch a major counterattack.
Tongmen Pass marks the border between Liangzhou and Youzhou.
Li Chang'an has already gathered more than 100,000 troops here, while Zhong Shentong has once again assembled an army of 300,000, with Tongmen Pass as their target.
This time, both sides have conserved their strength, and this decisive battle will determine the course of the world situation.
If Li Chang'an wins, Youzhou and the southern part of Northern Mang will be incorporated into the territory, and Lingzhou, where the Northern Liang royal family is located, will be completely surrounded by the Tang Kingdom.
If Zhong Shentong wins, then Liangzhou, Qingzhou, and Xishu will all be conquered by the Northern Barbarians, and the Northern Barbarians will truly penetrate deep into the heart of Liyang.
The sun is setting in the sky.
Li Chang'an sat calmly on the city tower, with Zhuge Liang and Gu Dazu behind him.
Li Chang'an felt more at ease now than during any previous major battle.
Previously, he was always the weaker or the one being attacked, but now, after several months of rest, he is full of confidence in defeating the Northern Barbarians.
In his view, it was a foolish move for the Northern Mang cavalry to attack the passes after they marched south.
As a nomadic force, their cavalry couldn't even defeat the Tang army in a direct cavalry battle, let alone conquer cities and strongholds.
However, he also understood Empress Murong's thoughts. If they were to truly march south and contend for control of the Central Plains, siege battles would be inevitable.
The Northern Mang cavalry, having eaten and drunk their fill in Youzhou, were burning with fierce fighting spirit, raising their scimitars and roaring deafeningly!
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Tens of thousands of fierce Northern Mang cavalrymen stopped a few hundred feet in front of Tongmen Pass, their orders strictly followed and their movements perfectly synchronized.
Even Zhuge Liang couldn't help but sigh, "After all, they are an army that started by plundering. Now that they have plundered Youzhou, their momentum is even stronger."
A general from the Northern Barbarians, clad in heavy armor with a wolf's head, took the lead and began challenging the enemy in front of the pass.
"This is Yelü Dongchuang, the vanguard under the command of the Grand General!"
"My million-strong Northern Mang army is about to march south. Li Chang'an, open the city gates immediately, and I may still spare your lives!"
"If you wait until a million-strong army marches into Liangzhou, Youzhou will serve as a cautionary tale for you!"
The Northern Barbarian general's desperate roar was met with a merciless rain of arrows!
Enraged, Yelü Dongchuang shouted at his tens of thousands of elite soldiers, "My lords, Li Chang'an is ungrateful! What should we do?"
The Northern Barbarian soldiers, charging through the arrows, shouted in unison, "Slaughter the city!"
"Slaughter Liangzhou! Intimidate the Southern Barbarians!"
Banners fluttered and drums thundered in the Northern Mang camp as Northern Mang soldiers began their assault on the pass, using ladders as a means of defense.
Above the fortress, the most elite Mo Dao soldiers and Bai Fei soldiers, along with masters from the number one tower under heaven, shattered the siege boulders.
With such meticulous preparations, Li Chang'an was confident that not a single Northern Mang soldier would be allowed to scale the city walls.
These Northern Mang soldiers were newly assembled and had not experienced the Battle of Yanjiahu. They thought that this fortress was as fragile as the cities of Youzhou.
However, all the soldiers who climbed the city wall were killed, and the siege stones could not even get close to the city wall!
At this point, the Northern Mang soldiers realized that this fortified pass was even more impregnable than Beilao Pass!
Chapter 249: An Army of 500,000! Zhao Fengya Submits!
Li Chang'an's No. 1 Pavilion under Heaven has attracted many first-rank masters. Including those who have always followed Li Chang'an, there are now more than twenty first-rank grandmasters on the pavilion.
As for the second-rank minor grandmasters, their number reached forty or fifty. Many of these martial arts figures decided to join Li Chang'an after learning of the Northern Barbarians' massacre of Youzhou.
Amidst internal strife in the Li Yang court, Xu Fengnian surprisingly ceded a province to the Northern Barbarians, thus reaching a peace agreement with them. Only Li Chang'an remained to fight against the Northern Barbarians.
Those martial arts figures who want to contribute to the people of the Central Plains have no choice but to rely on Li Chang'an.
With the help of many masters, the Northern Barbarians made no progress after attacking the city for most of the day, but lost more than 30,000 men. Tongmen Pass was like a meat grinder.
For the next month, the Northern Mang army tried various siege tactics that had been very effective in the past, but they were still unable to succeed in the face of overwhelming strength.
Moreover, Zhuge Liang was well-prepared, with enough rolling stones, logs, and oil on the city walls to hold off a three-month siege. It can be said that Zhong Shentong really ran into a brick wall this time.
Zhong Shentong never expected that he would be blocked by the first city gate after gathering 300,000 elite troops from the Northern Barbarians, preparing to wipe out Li Chang'an in one fell swoop.
In the Northern Mang army camp, behind Zhong Shentong were the two grandmasters, Li Fengshou and Deng Mao. The generals under his command all looked disheveled and their morale was low.
"General, let's bypass this pass and ask Xu Fengnian to pass through Lingzhou to attack southern Liangzhou. I refuse to believe that Li Chang'an can turn all the cities into an impregnable fortress!"
Yelü Dongchuang's suggestion is the most feasible at present. Liangzhou is not a small place. Although it is indeed long and narrow with dangerous passes, it is not the only entrance.
It shouldn't be that difficult for an army of over 200,000 to attack other cities.
Zhong Shentong remained silent. In fact, he had been considering this for a long time, but he had not made a decision because of the Empress's decree.
After losing 300,000 troops, Empress Murong was furious. The Northern Mang, which claimed to have a million-strong army that could crush the Li Yang Dynasty, couldn't even defeat a Northwest vassal king of the Li Yang Dynasty.
In the Empress's eyes, the reason she hadn't attacked Li Yang was because of her relationship with Xu Xiao.
However, she always believed that as long as Northern Mang went all out, Northern Liang would not be able to stop Northern Mang from advancing south.
Li Chang'an's military strength was at most comparable to Xu Xiao's at his prime, so how could he possibly stop the Northern Mang army?
Therefore, she gave Zhong Shentong a strict order: to march straight in from Tongmen Pass, the gateway to Liangzhou, and demonstrate the true military might of the Northern Barbarians to the Southern Barbarians.
It was precisely because of this imperial edict that the attack on Tongmen Pass became an operation concerning the face of both the Northern Barbarians and the Empress. If it could not be captured, it would greatly affect the Northern Barbarians' deterrent power in their southward advance.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard received this intelligence, which is why Li Chang'an went to great lengths to prepare fortifications at Tongmen Pass, knowing that the Northern Barbarians would definitely fight to the death at Tongmen Pass.
A month has passed, and Zhong Shentong is starting to waver. In any case, breaking into Liangzhou is the most important thing; they can't just be blocked here by a single pass.
As the Grand General of Northern Mang, as long as he can successfully enter Liangzhou, he will not be punished for violating the imperial edict to attack Tongmen Pass. After all, a general in the field may disobey the emperor's orders.
"This stalemate can't go on any longer. Tomorrow we'll borrow a route through Lingzhou without informing Xu Fengnian. Once we've dealt with Li Chang'an, we'll take Lingzhou!"
In the eyes of these fierce generals of the Northern Barbarians, Xu Fengnian did not have the courage to be an enemy of the Northern Barbarians, so he offered up the land of Youzhou in exchange for peace. The Northern Barbarian army was just passing through Lingzhou, so there was no need for them to greet him.
The next day, the Northern Mang army continued to send a small number of troops to prepare for the attack on the city. Just as they approached Tongmen Pass, they found the city gates wide open and a large number of cavalrymen charged out.
Although the news of Zhong Shentong's secret withdrawal of troops southward had been discovered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it had not yet been delivered to Li Chang'an.
This decisive battle outside the city was planned in advance, because everyone knew that the Northern Mang army would bypass the pass if they failed to conquer it after a long siege. Therefore, Li Chang'an wanted to fight the enemy before the pass was breached.
Li Chang'an did not want these 200,000-plus men to be scattered and attack the various borders of Liangzhou. In that case, the cost of eliminating the main force of Northern Mang would become enormous, and the war would be protracted.
However, wars are sometimes unpredictable. It's possible that Li Chang'an had accumulated too much good fortune, so his luck was exceptionally good. The time he sent his army out of the city coincided with Zhong Shentong's southward march to Lingzhou.
The small number of troops attacking the city were quickly defeated by the Tang army, and the Northern Mang army camps were all empty. Li Cunxiao, who was at the forefront, interrogated several officers and found out that Zhong Shentong had just gone south half a day ago.
"Hahaha, isn't this a coincidence! Heaven is going to destroy your supernatural powers!"
Li Cunxiao reported this news to Li Chang'an, who immediately ordered Li Cunxiao and Huo Qubing to lead 150,000 cavalry in two separate groups to pursue Zhong Shentong.
Two hours later, Li Cunxiao and Huo Qubing's cavalry caught up with Zhong Shentong's army of over 200,000 men. The Northern Mang army never expected the Tang army to arrive so quickly.
Zhong Shentong never expected that Li Chang'an would seize the opportunity to make his retreat and transfer. By the time the scouts delivered the news, the vanguard of the Tang army had already broken into the rear of the Northern Mang army.
However, the Northern Mang soldiers, who were on a normal march, lacked experience in marching in the Central Plains and were unable to put up a strong resistance in a short time.
Zhong Shentong and his generals stood atop a hill, watching the Tang cavalry slaughter the Northern Mang army as if they were nothing.
Looking at the black dragon and white tiger from afar, Zhong Shentong's face instantly turned ashen; his luck had truly hit rock bottom.
When Yelü Dongchuang and other generals saw the Tang army rushing out, they were excited. "General, the Tang army has finally come out of the Turtle Shell Pass. Now is the time to launch a counterattack!"
Zhong Shentong was a great general of Northern Mang, a true commander-in-chief. He was assessing the overall situation on the battlefield. "Nonsense!"
"If we and the Tang army each line up and charge at each other, given our numerical advantage, the outcome is still uncertain."
However, now that we've been caught in the crossfire during our withdrawal, we've lost the initiative. If we were to engage in battle again, we would likely suffer more defeats than victories.
He had witnessed the fighting prowess of the Tang cavalry at Yanjia Lake and had seen Dong Zhuo and Tuoba Chunhun killed with his own eyes. His understanding of the Tang army was far deeper than that of Empress Murong.
As a member of the Northern Mang royal family, Yelü Dongchuang's arrogance rose at this moment. "The General has repeatedly boosted the morale of others while diminishing his own. Could it be that he has been scared out of his wits by Li Chang'an!"
"With over 200,000 troops here, do you think we dare not fight Li Chang'an!"
Zhong Shentong couldn't directly insult this rising star of the royal family. "So what if we can fight a battle? Our goal is to destroy the Tang Dynasty."
If we are forced into a battle with Li Chang'an now, and lose another hundred thousand troops, will we still have a chance to completely eliminate Li Chang'an?
Yelü Dongchuang said sullenly, "General, what do you suggest we do now?"
Zhong Shentong sighed and said, "Let's turn back north, preserve our military strength, and then Your Majesty can once again lead a large army to conquer the Tang Kingdom!"
Upon hearing this, Yelü Dongchuang was extremely surprised. "General, to retreat without a fight and hand over the captured Youzhou to Li Chang'an will be punished by His Majesty!"
Zhong Shentong said calmly, "Even if I am punished, it is better than losing the entire army here."
This time Li Chang'an got lucky; I don't believe he'll always be so lucky!
Under the command of Zhong Shentong and a group of veteran generals, the Northern Mang army abandoned some of its troops, suffering a loss of 30,000 men.
The remaining 200,000 or so people, though hastily evacuated, managed to leave north safely.
Li Chang'an and Zhuge Liang pursued Zhong Shentong all the way to Youzhou, only to find that Zhong Shentong had abandoned the entire Youzhou and given it all to Li Chang'an.
Zhuge Liang couldn't help but exclaim, "Your Highness, Zhong Shentong is truly a brilliant strategist. He knows when to advance and retreat, understands gains and losses, and has minimized the damage."