It was fortunate that Pang Xianchu was not destined to die; the heavy iron railing hidden above the Yong'an Gate of Yongzhou City fell almost right past Pang Xianchu's nose.
Even the mighty general Pang Xianchu, with his unparalleled bravery, could not withstand the falling iron railing with his mortal body.
Fortunately, the assassins from the Prince of Nanyue's palace, who were hiding in Yongzhou City, failed at the crucial moment and dropped the iron fence ahead of time, which saved Pang Xianchu's life.
However, he was also tripped by the fallen warhorse.
The moment he fell to the ground, before Pang Xianchu could even rejoice at having escaped with his life, the deafening shouts of battle echoed in his ears once more.
Out of the corner of his eye, through the gaps in the iron fence, he saw that the Nanyue soldiers who had been hanging their heads and waiting to surrender in Yongzhou City had changed their appearance in the blink of an eye.
Wielding his swords, spears, and halberds, he unleashed a fierce barrage of slashes and hacks at the soldiers of the Left and Right Guards who were entering the city.
Furthermore, squads of fully armed Nanyue cavalry charged out from all directions within Yongzhou City, heading straight for the left and right guards of the Longcheng Southern Expeditionary Army inside Yong'an Gate.
In an instant, Yong'an Gate in Yongzhou City became a brutal battlefield.
The thousands of troops from Longcheng's southern expeditionary force, including the left and right guards, were besieged by an enemy force many times their size.
Despite the soldiers' valiant efforts and desperate resistance, they were unable to overcome the vast disparity in troop strength and were divided, surrounded, and annihilated one by one by the Southern Yue garrison in Yongzhou City.
"General Pang, are you alright?"
At this moment, Pang Xianchu, the deputy general who had been keeping a distance of more than ten paces from Pang Xianchu, finally rode up and, while dodging the rolling stones and logs constantly falling from the city wall, shouted anxiously:
"General Pang, the Nanyue garrison in Yongzhou City has feigned surrender. Our army is unprepared to attack the city. I request that you order a withdrawal first, and then reorganize our forces to attack the city!"
"withdraw!"
Pang Xianchu finally came to his senses and decisively ordered the army to temporarily withdraw.
In the chaos, he grabbed a warhorse from his personal guards, mounted it, and hastily retreated towards the outskirts of Yongzhou City.
At this time, the entire Nanyue garrison on the city wall of Yong'an Gate, the north gate of Yongzhou City, under the command of Crown Prince Li Shiyu, launched an attack on the unprepared Longcheng army outside the city.
The bows and arrows, crossbows, rolling stones, and logs that had been prepared in advance were thrown at the Longcheng Southern Expeditionary Army outside the city as if they were free.
The Longcheng Southern Expeditionary Army, which was hastily prepared for battle outside the city, suffered heavy casualties and was wounded in the well-prepared and organized surprise attack by the Yue garrison south of Yongzhou City. Under the command of their commander Pang Xianchu, they retreated.
"Report—"
"Your Highness, the rebel army in Longcheng has retreated!"
At this moment, Li Shiyu, the crown prince of the Southern Yue Kingdom, who was in command atop the city wall, also received a report from his deputy, Shi Feng.
Shi Feng said, "However, the enemy's commander-in-chief, Pang Xianchu, managed to escape by chance, but his more than three thousand personal guards who rushed into the city first have all been annihilated by our army!"
The report by Deputy General Shi Feng did not attract the attention of Crown Prince Li Shiyu at all.
Or rather, he simply didn't care about it at all.
Li Shiyu drew his bow and nocked an arrow, aiming it at a commander of the Longcheng Southern Expeditionary Army who was hastily retreating below the city.
Whoosh!
With a sharp whistling sound, the commander who was organizing his soldiers to retreat in an orderly manner fell to the ground, struck by an arrow.
Only then did a satisfied expression appear on Li Shiyu's face. He casually tossed the hard bow in his hand to the personal guard beside him and said with a sneer, "The army of Longcheng is nothing but mediocre!"
"Let Pang Xianchu escape if he wants. Once I have gathered my troops and left the city, I will personally take Pang Xianchu's dog head!"
"Your Highness is mighty!"
On the city wall, a group of generals from the Southern Yue Kingdom were flattering Prince Li Shiyu.
Compared to Li Shiyu, the crown prince of Nanyue, who was in high spirits on the walls of Yongzhou City due to his "first victory," Pang Xianchu, the valiant general who was organizing the withdrawal of his army outside the city, looked much more disheveled.
As Pang Xianchu rode on horseback, he turned back to look in the direction of Yongzhou City, his eyes filled with hatred and murderous intent.
Because of his carelessness and underestimation of the enemy, not only did thousands of his soldiers lose their lives in Yongzhou City, but he himself almost died on the battlefield.
Pang Xianchu had fought battles for half his life and experienced all kinds of situations, but he almost capsized in this small city of Yongzhou. This really angered the brave general, who couldn't swallow his anger.
He secretly vowed that one day the Southern Yue garrison in Yongzhou City would pay the price for the fallen soldiers of the Longcheng army!
On the way back to the camp, Pang Xianchu remained silent with a gloomy face.
Seeing this, the two deputy generals, Fan Wuji and Tang Ziyi, did not dare to step forward and speak.
All the generals knew perfectly well that the near defeat in Yongzhou City today was largely due to the poor command of their commander, Pang Xianchu, and also because the Southern Yue Kingdom was treacherous and cunning, resorting to a feigned surrender.
Regardless of the circumstances, Pang Xianchu, as the commander-in-chief, didn't even understand the basic principles of accepting surrender outside the city. He rashly ordered his army to enter the city to take over the city's defenses, which led to the tragedy.
On the other hand, as the commander-in-chief of the army, how could Pang Xianchu, a brave general who had fought for half his life, not know the principle of "accepting surrender outside the city"?
Ultimately, it was Pang Xianchu's carelessness and underestimation of the enemy that gave the Southern Yue defenders an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
On the one hand, Pang Xianchu was too confident in the military strength of the Longcheng army and naively believed the edict of surrender of Nanyue.
After all, when Pang Xianchu followed Chen Huai'an on his western expedition, the garrison of the four towns of Anxi and the surrender of the Uyghur Khanate were all handled by Chen Huai'an himself, who entered the city to receive the city defenses and military seals. There had never been a situation like today.
On the other hand, it was also because since Pang Xianchu followed Chen Huai'an in raising an army in Longcheng to quell the rebellion, apart from the setback he suffered in the Battle of Longcheng, he had always won one-sided victories in the rest of the battles.
As a result, Pang Xianchu had forgotten what defeat tasted like, which also made him somewhat arrogant.
It's true what they say: pride comes before a fall!
That evening, the defeated Longcheng army slunk back to their temporary camp.
Pang Xianchu's first action was to order all troops to be on high alert to prevent the Nanyue Kingdom's garrison in Yongzhou from launching a night attack.
The second matter was to summon all the generals under his command to the central command tent for a meeting.
Inside the central command tent, Pang Xianchu sat in the middle, flanked by his deputy generals Fan Wuji and Tang Ziyi, and then by the various military commanders.
Pang Xianchu's first words were: "Gentlemen, today's defeat in our southern expedition to Yongzhou is entirely due to my carelessness and underestimation of the enemy. I bear an unshirkable responsibility for this."
"After the meeting concludes, I will personally write a letter to the Emperor to report any punishment!"
After a pause, Pang Xianchu continued, "The second thing I want to say is that the army will rest for one night and attack the city tomorrow. I will use the heads of the Nanyue defenders in Yongzhou City to comfort the spirits of the soldiers who died today!"
"All generals, heed my command!"
"Your subordinate is here!"
......
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