Chapter 821 A Dream of Youth 353
The booming of drums rose and fell with the sound of cannon fire, followed by the deafening roar of battle. One after another, the Northern Jin soldiers who were attacking the city dodged rolling stones and scalding oil to climb the city walls, only to be driven back down.
However, the Zhou army defending the city also suffered heavy losses.
Yan Xi knew that his skills were not very good, so he only sat on the rear city tower to boost morale.
The reinforcements led by Xie Ning had already been discovered by the Northern Jin army. After all, it would be very difficult to hide such a large number of people.
That's why the Northern Jin army devised the plan to attack the city at dawn today, hoping to capture the capital before reinforcements arrived. After all, they had witnessed the power of Xie Ning's cannonballs, and with the two armies surrounding them, there was no chance of victory.
Moreover, they also learned that Xie Ning and his men had made all the gunpowder. Xiao Chu was secretly furious. Even Xiao Si, such a fierce general, couldn't kill Xie Ning. That little girl was really lucky.
However, Xie Ning did not die, nor did his fierce general. After returning to the team and recovering from his injuries, they even captured a city for them.
Later, they sent several more groups of people to assassinate Xie Ning, but they were all stopped by her guards.
"Is everything ready over there?"
Crown Prince Gu Yan calculated the time in his mind. It would probably take more than a day for the troops from Hedong to arrive on the other side of the river. When they crossed the river, they could stop them.
If they can capture the capital today, even if reinforcements from Hedong arrive, it won't matter, and their reinforcements will be here soon anyway.
Not to mention that the Great Zhou was already in chaos, with the emperor in a coma and a bunch of people fighting tooth and nail for the throne. The Northern Jin would certainly not let this opportunity slip by.
They set up five thousand catapults, and the outer wall of the capital, which was fifty li long, was divided into one hundred sections per li.
To make enough stone projectiles, they looted all the stone artifacts in the vicinity. Under such a fierce barrage, even the most heavily guarded city defenses could not withstand it.
However, this is just one of their tactics.
"Xiao Si has already assembled his troops. Once the tunnels are completed, he can launch a surprise attack and storm the city."
Digging tunnels is not easy. On the one hand, the moat above the city increases the difficulty of digging. If the defenders observe the abnormality outside the city, they will bury large urns on the inside of the city wall to listen underground and dig in the opposite direction to resist with thick smoke. In this way, tunnel warfare will inevitably fail.
Unfortunately, due to internal strife in the Great Zhou Dynasty, their tunnels were never discovered.
At this moment, under the fierce attack of the enemy, Yan Xi had already retreated from the city wall. She was still tightly clutching the letter Xie Ning had written to her earlier, which contained various methods of defending the city, one of which was the anti-tunnel tactic.
Xie Ning didn't know if the other party would use this method, but it's always better to be prepared.
Even though the Great Zhou was in turmoil and Yan Xi didn't have many soldiers at his disposal, he still sent people to keep a close eye on the enemy's movements. Whenever the Northern Jin army made any small moves, he would immediately have his men bury a large urn in the relevant area to listen in, calculate the time it would take for the enemy to dig, and then dig in the opposite direction.
"Your Majesty, when shall we leave the city to meet the enemy?" The speaker was Xiang Changsheng, one of the commanders of the Imperial Guards, the head of the Xiang family, and also Yan Xi's uncle.
"No rush, let's deal with the enemy in the tunnel first, then we'll fight based on what we hear." Yan Xi looked at the dimming sky, trying to figure out where Xie Ning was at this moment.
Looking at Yan Xi's resolute face, Xiang Changsheng was at a loss for words. He had never imagined that Yan Xi could sit in this position.
But Yan Xi did it. That day, Xiang Youyi sat opposite him and divined the future. Although he was a military general, he also paid attention to the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams when it came to military formations, so he could understand it.
What moved him was not only Xiang Youyi's divination, but also his hatred.
He only had one biological sister and his young nephew, both of whom were killed by King Zhao. How could he not hate them?
However, for the sake of the bigger picture, he swallowed his anger. But Xiang Youyi said that all the other princes were dead, including the son of the Prince of Duan. What was the point of his and the Empress Dowager's plan then?
At that time, Xiang Changsheng thought that he should kill King Zhao at all costs and then choose a child from the royal family to support as emperor.
Even at that time, he still hadn't thought of Yan Xi.
Until Xiang Youyi presented the divination results of Xiang Jianjun, concerning the fate of the Xiang family...
Previously, the fate of the Prime Minister's family was tied to the Empress; now it is tied to Yan Xi.
Xiang Changsheng used to disbelieve in these things, but Xiang Jianjun's predictions were so accurate that he had no choice but to lock him up.
But he was also worried that prying into the secrets of heaven would harm his own destiny, since that was his own son. Therefore, Xiang Changsheng forbade Xiang Jianjun from discussing divination with outsiders.
Xiang Changsheng couldn't help but believe in Xiang Jianjun's divination, which is why he made up his mind to bet everything on Yan Xi.
He had the entire Xiang family behind him, and he couldn't abandon his family.
"Your Majesty, General Xiang, the meal is ready. This way, please." Eunuch Ding was in charge of Emperor Jing's funeral in the palace, so he accompanied Yan Xi.
This is also one of the benefits that Yan Xi agreed to.
Actually, the food in the army is not very good, but Yanxi's is relatively good.
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