Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 170
Tian Kai saw that the first city wall collapsed, and countless soldiers from the Yuan Army poured in through the gap. The civilians behind took the opportunity to clean up the collapsed bricks and rubble, and widened the gap to form a passage.

He knew that this was a time of life and death, so he ordered all the defenders on the next few walls to climb up to the top of the second wall to guard.

He himself took out the strong bow and shot at the soldiers below.

Encouraged by this, the morale of Gongsun Zan's soldiers was greatly shaken.

At this time, Tai Shici led an army to the gap, saw the opponent's counterattack fiercely, immediately took off the big bow behind his back, looked at Tian Kai, and shot it with an arrow.

The arrow went very fast, and when it reached Tian Kai's door, Tian Kai realized that he quickly tilted his head and shot at his iron helmet with an unbiased shoulder. The huge impact brought him back again and again, and he fell down on the ground.

Yuan Jun soldiers under the city saw them and shouted, "The enemy general is dead!"

"The enemy general is dead!"

Gongsun Zan's army on the top of the city panicked immediately, and the counterattack was much weaker. Yuan Jun took the opportunity to attack the city.

Tian Kai's personal guards saw him lying on the ground with his eyes closed tightly, and he was in a state of panic, when Tian Kai suddenly opened his eyes, turned over and sat up.

Panting heavily, he managed to hold onto the city wall to stand up, feeling his mouth was full of blood foam.

He drew out the ring sword, held it up high, and roared: "You lords obey the order, and you will stick to it today!"

After hearing this, Gongsun Zan's army gradually recovered from the confusion and shouted in unison.

The attack and defense lasted for more than an hour. On Yuan Shao's side, Ju Shou saw that the defense of the second city wall was very strong, and the casualties of his own army were quite expensive. After talking to Yuan Tan, he ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops.

Yuan Xi hadn't rushed to the front for a long time, and now he was at the gate of his camp to meet the returning soldiers, and the familiar feeling from before returned to his body.

This time, there was an infantry army led by Tai Shici who entered the gap. When they went there, there were 500 people. When they came back, there were less than [-] people who could stand.

Even for the remaining people, most of them were wounded, lightly supported each other, and barely came back. Those who could not move were all carried back by others, and some were even dragged back.

Some had several arrows stuck in their bodies, rolling and howling continuously on the stretcher, some had a hole in their body, and blood sprayed out continuously, some clutched their abdomen tightly, staggered as they walked, and then fell down on the ground. On the ground, intestines flowed all over the floor.

The pungent smell of blood hit Yuan Xi's nostrils, and he hurriedly called the doctors to rescue the wounded soldiers.

Taishi Ci had a few arrows stuck in his armor, he stepped forward with a look of shame on his face, and said, "Ci's failure in the battle, I'm ashamed, my lord."

Yuan Xi waved his hand and said, "It's good to come back, brother, is there any injury, what happened inside?"

Because he was on the periphery, blocked by the first city wall, he didn't know what happened.

Tai Shici pulled the arrow out of the armor and said, "Fortunately, the armor blocked it, but the counterattack of Gongsun Zan's army inside was somewhat unexpected."

After Tai Shici's explanation, Yuan Xi realized that the Yuan army who attacked the city wall was ambushed.

It was Baima Yicong who made the move.

Taking advantage of Yuan Jun's attack on the second city wall, they charged from the blank area between the first and second city walls.

Baima Yicong is mostly light cavalry, so if he rushes into the infantry formation like this, he is basically dead but not alive. Scatter as many as possible.

It was also this wave of assault that took the lives of hundreds of people under Tai Shici's command.

Although the hundreds of cavalrymen were pulled off their horses and killed by the Yuan soldiers after falling into the enemy's line, the defenders on the top of the city took the opportunity to counterattack and completely defeated Yuan Jun's attack on the city.

After Tai Shici shot several cavalrymen to death with his archery skills, he led his men to hold on until Mingjin withdrew his troops before returning.

Yuan Xi was also quite heartbroken, these pawns were all carefully trained by Qu Yi for a long time, so many died in one attack!

However, in comparison, the other Yuan Army infantry suffered more casualties. According to Tai Shici, it seems that Zhang He was also slightly injured and was rescued.

Yuan Xi shook his head, because the line of sight was blocked by the city wall, so Yuan Jun's response was a bit slower, which was also helpless on the battlefield.

Fighting in this era, for most commanders, the battlefield is shrouded in fog, and they can only rely on predictions to judge battlefield trends.

Yuan Jun tried to attack again, but found that he was still unable to attack the top of the city, so he had to withdraw his troops again, and at the same time continued to dig tunnels under the first wall.

That night, Yuan Shao called all the generals to discuss the offensive in the next few days. The counselors talked for a long time, but they didn't come up with any good methods.

Guo Jia, on the other hand, suggested diverting Yishui upstream and flooding Yijing, which was quite agreed by several counselors.

But Yuan Shao vetoed it after consideration, because flooding and digging tunnels are in conflict and will affect the next plan.

In the end, Yuan Shao decided to expand the gap in the first city wall first, to assist the tunnel attack and prevent the enemy from escaping.

In the next few days, Yuan Shaojun relied on the first city wall to fight back to cover the civilians who were digging the tunnel, and did not come close to the second city wall.

Yuan Shao convened everyone every night, but everyone couldn't think of any good way for a while. The deeper the tunnel was dug, the slower it was, and they could only trade time for space.

At this moment in the highest watchtower in Yi Jing City, several generals were arguing in front of Gongsun Zan about what they were talking about.

Tian Kai's head was tied with a cloth belt, although Tai Shici's arrow hit the iron helmet a few days ago, it still cracked the corner of Tian Kai's forehead, and the injury has not healed yet.

He said: "In such a situation, Baima Yicong can't play a role at all."

"Also ask Marquis Ji to command the cavalry army, break out from the west gate, and go to Xishan to join the Heishan army."

Some generals shook their heads and said, "Even if we merge with the Black Mountain Army, we still have to face Yuan Jun's army, which will not change the situation in Yijing."

Tian Kai said: "It's not to come back to counterattack, but to encircle Wei and save Zhao!"

"When the time comes, Marquis Ji can go south to Jizhou with the Heishan army, cut off the Yuan army's two routes, and even threaten Yecheng!"

"As for those of us who stick to Yijing, when Yuan Shao's army runs out of food and grass, the offensive and defensive momentum will change!"

When the generals heard this, their eyes lit up. This was an excellent solution.

When Gongsun Zan heard this, he was also quite moved. He stood up and looked at the city wall in the distance.

Over there, Yuan Jun's Louchong carts were densely packed, and the archers on Louchong were constantly firing arrows to suppress the defenders of Gongsun Zan's city wall.

Under the truck below, the civilian husbands kept digging the soil all night, making the defenders in the city panic and unable to rest at all.

In the final analysis, Yuan Jun still had too much advantage. He managed to surround one with ten, which resulted in the defenders in Yijing City being suppressed in several places, unable to exert their full strength at all.

If this situation does not change, sooner or later he will be dragged to death!

He was about to speak when his general Guan Jing spoke.

"Jihou, this plan is impossible."

After hearing this, Tian Kai said angrily, "Why?"

Guan Jing said: "The people in the city are already panicked. If Jihou leaves, the people will be even more scattered. They will feel that Jihou has abandoned them."

Everyone was silent. What Guan Jing said was the truth. For more than a year, Gongsun Zan's allies in Youzhou and Qingzhou had been attacked. Gongsun Zan had never sent troops to rescue them, which had already made his soldiers feel cold.

Now that Gongsun Zan left Yi Jing, who would believe that he would come back?

Gongsun Zan said, "Tian Kai has been fighting bravely these past few days. Could it be that he can't stabilize people's hearts in the city?"

Guan Jing shook his head and said: "Forgive me, General Tian was defeated by Yuan Shao's army in Qingzhou, and there were not even one out of ten soldiers. It is difficult to convince the crowd."

Tian Kai blushed, what Guan Jing said was true, he did not expect to lose so badly in Qingzhou, which indirectly caused Yi Jing to fall into the current unfavorable situation, and he is to blame.

Guan Jing said: "Furthermore, calculating the distance, the Black Mountain Army needs to prepare for at least half a month before going out of Taihang Mountain. It is too early. When we leave the city at this time, we are still half a month away from the Black Mountain Army. It is extremely easy to be ambushed."

"Ji Hou really wants to fight back with one blow, but we have to wait for half a month to see. At that time, there may be something that changes the situation."

After hearing this, everyone couldn't help admitting that what Guan Jing said was indeed reasonable.

Gongsun Zan waved his hand and said, "Since that's the case, everyone should guard the city first!"

Here Yi Jing started to fight, and the princes of all parties have already begun to make moves.

At this time, at the ferry on the south bank of the Yellow River, thousands of Cao troops were taking advantage of the night to cross the Yellow River one after another and board the north bank.

Xia Houyuan, the general of the Cao army, led the team. He led the exhausted Cao army to the river bank. After marching for more than ten miles, he saw thousands of cavalry rolling towards him.

Xia Houyuan took a closer look, and suddenly turned pale with shock. The opponent was playing under the banner of Yuan Jun!
At that moment, a general came out and shouted: "I am Gao Lan. Who is here? Why did you violate the border of Jizhou?"

Xia Houyuan cursed inwardly, he was discovered so quickly, obviously the other party had been prepared and sent scouts ahead of time!
At this moment, the others were exhausted and unable to start a battle with the opponent, so they could only say: "I am the general of Cao Zhou's herdsman, but I have no other intentions."

Gao Lan sneered: "Nonsense!"

"You wait to retreat quickly, or I will be rude!"

The cavalry behind him shouted and all raised their spears high.

Seeing this, Xia Houyuan had no choice but to retreat and return to the south bank of the Yellow River overnight.

The news quickly spread to Cao Cao in Juancheng. Everyone in Caoying sighed slightly. Although it was a test this time, they were discovered by the other party so quickly. Is it because they have traitors, or did Yecheng already guess it?

Cao Cao also had a gloomy face. It was too obvious to take the road across the Yellow River.

Moreover, Xia Houyuan also disappointed him a little. If Cao Ren were replaced, he might have to fight the other party first, and just look for excuses later.

Moreover, according to Cao Cao's expectation, Hanoi should be captured first, connected with the Black Mountain Army, and threatened the west of Jizhou. At this time, it is safe to send troops to attack Yecheng.

But the two things that made Cao Cao's missteps were that he hadn't killed Lu Bu so far. The opponent seemed to be a prophet, blocking Chenliu County and expanding into Hanoi, as if he knew what he was thinking!
Another point is that Yuan Shaojun attacked Gongsun Zan so quickly and decisively that Cao Cao had no extra soldiers on his side.

Because Cao Ren is currently leading the main force of Cao's army to attack Chen State. Although it is about to be captured, it will take several months to stabilize after the capture, which is tantamount to missing the best opportunity to attack Yecheng.

In Cao Cao's prediction, the best situation is that Gongsun Zan and the Black Mountain Army hold back Yuan Shao's army, attack Yecheng by themselves, and cut off Yuan Shao's grain road.

As long as he sticks to Yecheng for a few months with the support of Yanzhou, Yuan Shao's army will collapse, and the most affluent state in the world will fall into his hands.

However, at this time, it seems that this plan is not going to work, and it can only be the next best thing.

(End of this chapter)