Hengdao Sixteen Kingdoms

Chapter 702 Guidance

Li Yue suddenly discovered something strange. In such a battle that would determine the situation of the world, there were no reinforcements to save Xiangyang...

You must know that the last time he attacked Jingxiang, reinforcements came from all over the country, forcing Li Yue to give up even Jiangling.

Not only were there no reinforcements this time, they even ignored the rebellions in Wuling and Changsha and stayed in Wuchang wholeheartedly.

In this situation, Jingxiang's heroes came to express their loyalty one by one.

The Jin Dynasty even suppressed the local nobles in Jiangdong, let alone the powerful Jingxiang.

The powerful local nobles in Jiangdong may still be able to drink a sip of soup, while the powerful in Jingxiang can only drink the northwest wind.

"If Huan Wen doesn't come, I won't be able to carry out the siege and reinforcements." Li Yue said with a smile.

"Perhaps Huan Wen has seen that Xiangyang cannot be defended and is unwilling to waste troops." Lu Qing cupped his hands and said.

"Forget it, since he won't come, I will take Xiangyang first." Li Yue didn't have the energy to find out what the people in Jiangdong were thinking. Xiangyang must win this battle.

"Your Majesty, a letter has arrived from Wuchang." The guard came in holding a letter.

Liang Guo promoted paper, and Jiangdong also followed suit and used paper.

Li Yue opened the letter, and he saw that Huan Wen's hand was strong and powerful, and dragons and phoenixes were dancing. As the saying goes, the words of Tao are like his own. Huan Wen was considered a hero in the world, with vision, strategy, and power. Unfortunately, he was born in the confusion of Jiangdong and could not escape.

Unexpectedly, the letter did not talk about the war, but recalled the past and talked about the close cooperation back then.

"Is Huan Wen going to surrender?" Li Yue read it over and over again, somewhat confused as to why he was sending such a letter at this time.

Could it be that Li Yue would let Jiang Dong go because of the slightest trace of friendship in the past?

Now that the pants are off, how can they be retracted?

"How can Huan Wen surrender before Xiangyang is conquered? This letter is to confuse Your Majesty." Lu Qing explained forcefully.

Jiangdong celebrities like to engage in these frivolous things.

Li Yue took a few steps and said, "Reply a letter and write that a man lives in heaven and earth. How can he live in a state of depression for a long time?"

Lu Qing was stunned, "Your Majesty, this is..."

Li Yue said: "Everyone knows Sima Zhao's intentions, and the whole world knows what Sima Huan is going to do, so why are he pretending? Let him be more straightforward. If he doesn't have the courage, it is better to surrender to Daliang earlier without losing the reward of the Duke."

After the Sima family established the country, it experienced rounds of challenges from powerful ministers.

In history, even though they survived Huan Wen and Huan Xuan's father and son, they did not survive the blow of Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty. Early death and late death were all fatalities. Without Wuhu's chaos in China to divert conflicts, the Jin Dynasty should have been buried after the Eight Kings Rebellion.

Li Yue can be regarded as pointing out the path of life for Huan Wen. It depends on whether he dares to do it or not.

Lu Qing was writing furiously, and Li Yue walked out of the hall. The generals were lined up outside. They had been waiting for a long time. Flags were fluttering in the wind, and spears and spears were shining brightly.

His eyes swept over Xu Cheng, Cao Kan, Qin Biao, Mi Jin...

Their eyes revealed their desire for victory, but many people's temples were stained with hoarfrost, and their faces had a few more wrinkles.

"Siege the city." Li Yue waved his hand.

Xiangyang's fate has been doomed, and the fate of Jiangdong, which is hard to return to, has also been doomed.

The only thing to be prepared for is his counterattack before death.

Historically, even after winning the Battle of Feishui, Jiangdong failed to clean up its long-standing shortcomings and regain its strength. Instead, it accelerated its demise.

"Take your orders." The generals shouted in unison.

After a while, the war drums roared.

Under Xiangyang City, the new trebuchets were staring at them like giant beasts, which were three times larger than the old trebuchets.

Each trebuchet is operated by fifty or sixty people, winching, lifting stones, and pulling ropes.

Amid the huge creaking sound, more than eighty catapults were ready to go.

The battlefield suddenly became quiet at this moment.

Countless people on and off the city looked at these giant wooden beasts. Some were confused, some were horrified, and some didn't take it seriously.

"Put--" Li You's protracted tone was like a whistle arrow piercing the sky. "Let go -" other messengers also shouted.

boom--

Eighty-three huge stones weighing 100 kilograms were thrown into the sky, whistling, and smashed into the west wall of Xiangyang.

There were huge explosions, stone chips flew everywhere, and the city wall was dented visibly to the naked eye.

Then the second and third rounds of boulders came in the blink of an eye and hit the city wall. The city wall shook for a while and was no longer as strong as before.

After the sixteenth round, a section of the city wall next to the Wengcheng suddenly cracked and then collapsed under the gaze of hundreds of thousands of people.

The battlefield suddenly became quiet for a short time.

Neither Liang Jun nor Jin Jun expected that Xiangyang City, which had always been as solid as a rock, would actually collapse.

Although the gap was not large, allowing only one person to pass through, the psychological impact on the soldiers on both sides was huge.

This silence lasted for less than three breaths, and suddenly a tsunami-like cheer erupted, "It's broken, it's broken!"

There was a panic on the city wall, and some people fell off the city wall and screamed.

As Huan Wen's home base, Xiangyang had elites left in the city. After a brief panic, they immediately blocked the cracks with wood and stones.

But this is doomed to be in vain.

As if deliberately amplifying the fear of the defenders in the city, it took half an hour before the boulder descended again.

Various small catapults, thunderbolt carts, and crossbow carts were also pushed up, and stones, large and small, and arrows were thrown at them like raindrops.

There were more and more cracks on the city wall, and even the urn city was destroyed.

Li Yue looked at the hot battlefield and sighed in his heart. Technology is not only productivity, but also war capability.

"Your Majesty, when will we attack?" Xu Cheng asked.

"There is a saying in the art of war that it is good to subjugate the enemy's troops without fighting. Now that the victory has been decided, there is no need to rush and send orders. The catapults will not stop day and night."

If you are poor, you can use tactics to intersperse, if you are rich, you can cover it with firepower.

An army of 50,000, plus 40,000 civilians, can keep the catapult awake for three days and three nights.

As long as the defenders in the city are not fools, they will know that this battle cannot be fought.

Because their barriers have failed.

During the day, they used cannons and rocks, and at night, they bombarded them with kerosene and wood every hour. The city was on fire all night long.

Li Yue originally thought that the Jin army would launch a night attack, but unexpectedly, they still retreated into the city.

However, after a day and a night of bombardment, one-third of the catapults were damaged under high load operation. The craftsmen accompanying the army repaired them, but eleven of them were completely scrapped.

Other small catapults suffered more damage.

But these are minor issues.

By noon, a small section of Xiangyang's west city wall collapsed, forming a slope made of stones, wood and a few corpses between the walls.

Behind the slope, the Jin army pulled down the houses and formed a second line of defense. It was obvious that they were going to fight in the streets and resist stubbornly.

Even so, the catapults continued, pouring madness inside.

The peasants used oxcarts to transport cartloads of stones. The black cloud warriors formed several square formations to guard in front of the catapults. On the right, two cavalrymen of 5,000 were ready to attack.

It wasn't until the third day, when nearly half of the various catapults were damaged, that Li Yue ordered to stop, "That's enough, give them one last blow."

(End of this chapter)