Chapter 489 Waiting for a long time

The Western Wei army actually originated from the Jingnan Prefecture troops and Dongting Lake navy of the Former Yan. In the battle with the Tang army, it actually performed quite well.

However, there are still large gaps between the two sides in terms of military organization, troop quality, daily training, enemy experience, etc. The most direct manifestation is the combat effectiveness of the two sides in combat.

The senior generals of the Western Wei army originally thought that they could rely on the strong city to consume a large amount of the Tang army's spirit, food, and weapons, forcing the enemy to retreat after paying a huge price.

The basis of all this is that you have to defend the city and counterattack appropriately.

Therefore, the Western Wei Dynasty concentrated its main forces on several important passes and strategic hubs.

For example, the places such as Linzhang, Dunkou, Fancheng, Xiangyang, Yidao, and Yiling were actually guarding the Yangtze River and the Han River. As long as these two water veins were controlled, the Tang army would not be able to sustain its military operations. The cost of transporting food by land was too high, and even the Tang Dynasty could not afford it.

But Ding Jingzhen, who proposed the strategy, did not expect that the forest barrier would be lost in less than half a month.

The defeated soldiers who fled to Dundun brought news that the Tang army had a new type of catapult that was as fast as thunder and could hit hundreds of steps away.

It was precisely because of the emergence of this new type of catapult that the defenders of Linzhang took the initiative to fight.

Because the casualties in the city were so heavy from the bombardment. They couldn't resist. But the result of fighting outside the city was clear.

It collapsed in half a day.

The Tang army that attacked Linzhang would certainly support Dunkou. It was predictable that the Tang army would set up catapults with a range of hundreds of steps here.

Ding Jingzhen immediately ordered the soldiers and civilians in the city to build fortifications and corner towers on the top of the city. But when he saw a stone cannon directly penetrate the roof of the main tower, he was terrified.

What kind of terrifying force is this? With such a powerful siege weapon, how can this city be defended?
Abandonment
Hundreds of miles away on the battlefield of Xiangfan, Cao Xuan, who was in Xiangyang, did not know that Linzhang had been lost.

The commander of Fancheng was General Xiang Gong, who had more than 10,000 elite soldiers in the city. As a fortress that depended on Xiangyang, if Fancheng was lost, Xiangyang would be unable to stand alone.

Therefore, Xiang Gong did not dare to slack off. He arranged the city defense very carefully, raised the city walls, and prepared a large number of city defense equipment, such as arrows, Yaksha hammers, crossbows, etc.

However, what surprised the defenders was that the Tang army did not use the ant-like siege method or carry soil to fill the trenches.

Instead, they built a camp outside the city. In particular, the north of Fancheng was originally a high ground, and now trenches and earth walls were built there.

This abnormal behavior attracted the attention of the Wei army, but they could not figure out what this was for.

There were generals who requested to lead their troops out of the city to raid the Tang army, but Xiang Gong flatly refused when he saw the Tang cavalry marching outside the city.

Defending the city might still be possible, but going out of the city to fight in the field would be courting death.

Xiang Gong paid close attention to the various movements of the Tang army, but he did not dare to take it lightly at all.

It was very strange that the Tang army surrounded the city but did not attack. If they wanted to take Fancheng by siege, Xiang Gong thought that the Tang army commander might be crazy.

Fancheng is located on the north bank of the Han River, separated from Xiangyang by the river. Unless the Tang army uses the navy to cut off the connection between the two cities, even so, the food and grass in Fancheng will be enough for the defenders in the city to eat for more than half a year.

Moreover, it is impossible to camp on the water, and it is impossible to cut off the connection between the two cities. Behind Xiangyang is the entire Jianghan Plain as a food supply. It is a bit ignorant to fight a war of attrition like this.
Xiang Gong thought of many possibilities, but in the end all he could do was to instruct the soldiers to strengthen the city wall defenses and not to slack off.

As for going out of the city to fight and test the strength of the Tang army, this was not within his consideration at all.

This stalemate lasted for more than 20 days. Even Xiang Gong himself was a little lazy.
Then, on the morning of that day, a stone cannon struck like a bolt from the blue, causing the entire Fancheng city to begin to shake.

The sound shook heaven and earth, and everything it hit was destroyed, sinking seven feet into the ground.

Soldiers and civilians in the city suffered heavy casualties from the huge rocks. Many people were still in their houses when the stone cannons pierced through the roofs and smashed them into a pool of mud.

Faced with such a powerful attack, the soldiers on the city wall were all terrified and had no intention of fighting.

Xiang Gong immediately prepared to concentrate his crossbows, hoping to use the range advantage to counterattack the Tang army's stone-throwing machines, but they only then discovered that the crossbows could not damage the stone-throwing machines behind the earth wall built by the Tang army, and the Tang army operating them. The projection curve of the crossbows and stone-throwing machines was different, and they were closer to flat shooting, so Xiang Gong could only watch the crossbow arrows hit the earth wall and penetrate three-quarters of the ground, but he could not stop the opponent's stone-throwing machines from firing continuously.

Hundreds of stone cannonballs fell at the same time, some landed on the top of the city, some fell into the city, constantly attacking the psychological defense line of the defenders.

Xiang Gong himself was nearly hit by a stone cannon, but fortunately his trusted general pushed it away in time, but the loyal general was smashed to a bloody mess.

Xiang Gong had no choice but to write a letter to Cao Xuan, the Emperor of the Western Wei Dynasty in Xiangyang City, informing him of the situation in the city in detail and advising him that Xiangfan could no longer be defended. It would be better to go to Jiangling as soon as possible to consolidate the city defenses, in the hope of being able to continue to deal with the Tang army with the help of Jiangling's city defenses.

In fact, without him saying anything, Cao Xuan had already started thinking about these things.

The sound in Fancheng shook the world, and Xiangyang could also hear it. Under such circumstances, Cao Xuan also knew that Fancheng was doomed to not last long, and Xiang Gong's opinion was extremely realistic.

Under such a severe attack, it was difficult for the Wei army to maintain its morale.

So Cao Xuan immediately summoned Sikong and Lu Shangshu Shi Kuai Wenxian to discuss countermeasures.

"Mr. Kuai, the country is in crisis right now. I hope you will give me some advice."

"Your Majesty, for now, please go to Jiangling as soon as possible. I will do my best to help with the matter in Xiangyang and try my best to buy time for Your Majesty."

Cao Xuan remained silent upon hearing this. He was not a fool and understood what the other party meant.

Cao Xuan had always respected Kuai Wenxian, his former superior, and Kuai Wenxian did his best to keep the Western Wei regime running.

But both of them knew that this good cooperative relationship must be built on a stable foundation.

Once the Western Wei Dynasty faced life and death, it was impossible for the Jingzhou gentry to stand together with Cao Xuan through thick and thin and live and die together.

Although the Western Wei Dynasty always placed its capital in Xiangyang and was determined to launch a northern expedition, in fact, Nanjun Jiangling was the core of the Western Wei Dynasty and the place where Cao Xuan had been operating for the longest time.

Another meaning of persuading him to return to Jiangling was to let him give up Xiangyang.

Cao Xuan sighed for a long time after hearing this, "Then I'll leave Xiangyang to Lord Kuai."

Kuai Wenxian bowed and said, "Your Majesty, if you are determined to restore the Wei Dynasty, you should follow the example of Zhaolie, take Jiangling as your base, and with the troops, horses, money and food of the four counties in southern Jing, and follow Zhuge Longzhong's plan, you may be able to achieve success."

After hearing this, Cao Xuan suddenly laughed and said, "Then I will borrow your good words."

As Kuai Wenxian left, Cao Xuan let out a long sigh, shook his head and said, "These people only care about the rise and fall of their families, but not the rise and fall of their countries. They are not worth cooperating with."

A few days later, Cao Xuan led more than 10,000 elite soldiers and hundreds of warships directly under his command and headed south to Jiangling.

And Kuai Wenxian and Xiang Gong were worthy of him.

Ten days after he left, Xiang Gong retreated from Fancheng to Xiangyang, and the defenders and civilians in the city opened the gates and asked for surrender.

In Xiangyang, Kuai Wenxian also sent messengers to contact the Tang army.

At first, the soldiers in the city were quite arrogant and offered a surrender condition close to the rule of Jingzhou by the people of Jingzhou. After more than ten days of tug-of-war, nothing useful was negotiated. In October, with the installation of the Shenji Cannon in the northeast corner of Xiangyang, a cannon blew down the corner tower in the city. It was like thunder shaking the city. The gentry of Jingzhou in the city finally knew what kind of life the people of Fancheng had lived in the past few days, so. All the generals in the city came from Kuai Wenxian, and they wanted to promote the surrender as soon as possible.

A few days later, the gates of Xiangyang City were opened, and Kuai Wenxian led the army and the people to surrender the city.

Li Sanlang, the King of Jin of the Tang Dynasty, said to Kuai Wenxian with a smile, "Sir, why are you opening the door so late?"

Kuai Wenxian said, "It is the Prince of Jin who is late."

Li Sanlang laughed when he heard this, and then said, "Then this is my fault. Thank you for waiting for me."

(End of this chapter)