Chapter 581 Preparing to Rescue
Moling
Dong Guowei waved his battle flag and shouted, "Soldiers, listen up! The first group to reach the top of Moling City today will be rewarded with ten gold coins!"
The soldiers below were all agitated when they heard this, "Oh-oh-"
"Now, prepare to attack the city!"
Woohoo—woohoo—
Dongdongdong——Dongdong——
There were bursts of drum beating and charge horns sounded.
“Charge!”
Dong Guowei stood on the square chariot, watching the vanguard carrying ladders and charging into battle under a hail of arrows.
Some people fell down, and some people rushed forward.
Soon, soldiers rushed to the city wall, set up ladders, and climbed up nimbly.
Dong Guowei watched intently as the first soldier managed to dodge the attack from above and climbed to the top of the city wall. He only needed to go through the battlements to get in.
But as soon as he stretched out his hand, he let out a cry of pain and involuntarily retracted his hand. At this time, the soldier was standing on the ladder. His sudden movement naturally caused his body to be unbalanced, and then he screamed and fell straight down.
This situation happened one after another. After half an hour, no one had managed to reach the top of the city wall.
"What's going on?" Dong Guowei also realized that something was wrong.
At this time, the vanguard general came back with a soldier, "General Dong, the enemy should be equipped with some sharp objects around the battlements of the city wall, look--" He signaled the soldier to stretch out his hand.
The soldier's palms and arms seemed to have been cut by something sharp, and were covered with wounds, bleeding profusely.
"A sharp object? Could it be a caltrop?" Dong Guowei pondered secretly.
"General Dong, it's not a caltrop. I saw that thing. It's sharp and pointed, transparent, and firmly attached to the battlements."
Dong Guowei frowned and nodded. It seemed that it would be difficult for them to attack the city wall this time, so he turned his attention to the car crash.
He noticed that no matter whether it was a ramming cart or a wooden ram, the soldiers worked together to ram it against the city gate, but the gate did not move at all.
No progress.
While Dong Guowei was frowning over the progress of the siege, the soldiers guarding the city on the Moling city wall felt that the pressure was greatly relieved.
When the enemy attacks, they can't take care of it for the time being. They just need to finish off the enemy after their palms or arms are pierced.
After another half hour, Dong Guowei confirmed that the difficulty of attacking Moling had indeed increased, and had more than doubled, so he decisively ordered the troops to withdraw and stop the siege.
In a siege, if you cannot attack the enemy's towers or break down the city gates, continuing would only be a meaningless sacrifice.
Woo woo woo——
The imperial court sounded the call for the troops to retreat, and the soldiers attacking the city retreated like a tide.
Cheers came from the tower of Moling City.
The general defending the city immediately sent someone to report the good news to King Jin.
"Your Majesty, Dong Guowei has withdrawn his troops."
"Hahaha." King Jin laughed heartily.
"Your Highness, this time the imperial court's attack has not even lasted an hour."
"There must be too many casualties. Dong Guo feels sorry for this old man!"
After this battle, King Jin's favorability towards Pingzhou increased rapidly.
Bai Xingzhi, who was standing aside, frowned. He did not have the optimism of King Jin.
The King of Jin's territory had shrunk drastically. Originally, he had the four Donghai counties. Now, half of Xin'an County was gone, a third of Kuaiji County was gone, and two cities in Danyang were ceded to Pingzhou. Of the four counties, only Wu County remained intact.
All in all, they only had two counties left.
The land of two counties has to support 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers and horses...
Now they don't have to worry about food and grass because of King Jin's wealth, but in the long run, this will definitely not work.
He now only hoped that their plan would go smoothly and that the imperial court would dispatch troops north as soon as possible. Only then would they have a chance of survival.
Thinking of the news coming back from Chang'an, Bai Xingzhi smiled. As for Old Lady Sun's behavior of almost forcing the emperor, their people naturally added fuel to the fire.
Bai Xingzhi thought, just hold on a little longer!
…
Xie Zhan was leading his men in a discussion when the emperor's imperial edict of reprimand arrived.
The entire imperial edict had one meaning: to reprimand him for being lazy, not doing his best, and being a mere slacker...
In short, he was dissatisfied with his current progress in encircling King Jin.
Xie Zhan knelt down to receive the decree and apologize.
Facing the imperial edict of Song Mo's reprimand, Xie Zhan was very calm. He didn't care about Song Mo's evaluation, so Song Mo's reprimand had no effect on him.
However, the expressions of the members under his command were not very good. When the emperor reprimanded Xie Zhan, the commander-in-chief, wasn't he also scolding them?
How long have they been attacking the East China Sea? They've already conquered so many cities! They're advancing in an orderly and swift manner. Even so, the Emperor still thinks they're slow?
The emperor's difficulty in serving was fully demonstrated at this time.
At this time, Dong Guowei sent someone to report the battle situation of Maling.
Dong Guowei naturally reported the unusual situation in Moling to the Grand Commander Xie Zhan as soon as possible.
Dong Guowei said that the difficulty of attacking Moling had increased.
Pingzhou had gotten involved. It was hard for those present not to speculate in this direction. Would the King of Jin's cities become more difficult to attack in the future?
Thinking of this, coupled with the previous imperial edict of reprimand, the faces of the generals present became solemn.
"Now that the Prince of Jin has defended Moling this time, will he not send another city to Pingzhou?" Xie Nan said sarcastically.
The others laughed too.
Xie Zhan stood in front of the map, not laughing, but also did not stop them from making fun of King Jin.
He focused on the overall battle situation, not the gains and losses of a single city or pond.
In fact, Xie Zhan believed that Pingzhou still had the ability to continue to capture cities, but Pingzhou was really too stable, taking steady steps and always preserving its strength.
The King of Jin gave two cities to Pingzhou for free. He was unhappy at first, but from another perspective, this would force Pingzhou to continue to expand its defense line and accelerate the consumption of Pingzhou's food and grass, which was not a bad thing.
Now that he knew that Pingzhou was helping Prince Jin strengthen the city, Xie Zhan was not too angry.
In his view, the Prince of Jin and the Pingzhou expeditionary force in the East China Sea were like two rootless duckweed in a pond. No matter how many tricks they used, they would still be in his grasp.
…
Old man Wang Juntao was confined by Xie Zhan to Meishan Manor in Juzhang.
Qin Sheng and his men successfully sneaked into Juzhang, and then found a secret place to hide near Meishan Manor.
After settling down, they were busy.
It didn't take much time to figure out Ju Zhang's defense points and troop distribution, as well as the situation of Meishan Manor, such as patrol patterns and slogans.
Qin Sheng immediately sensed something was amiss. He then personally surveyed the area surrounding Meishan Manor and eliminated anyone hiding in the shadows.
Before rescuing people, Qin Sheng asked someone to notify Lin Shan and ask him to take precautions.
Qin Sheng didn't know what would be triggered after he rescued the people, but he intuitively felt that Xie Zhan should have made corresponding arrangements against the Cao Gang.
Like his wife, when making plans, she always deduces several possible situations and then prepares three sets of backup and response plans.
Although he didn't want to admit that Xie Zhan had brains, he couldn't ignore his insidiousness and cunningness.
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