Volume 10 Chapter 286

Chapter 286

The Zhen army urgently recruited the people in the city to participate in the defense. At this time, Zhao Huan's reputation in the Zhen Kingdom was reflected. With one call, hundreds of people responded. All the men, women, old and young in the city who could fight went to the city wall to help the Zhen army resist the coalition forces. Those who could not fight transported arrows, rolling logs, pounding stones and other items for the Zhen army soldiers on the city wall.

There were hundreds of thousands of people in Huaning City, and the Zhen people were brave and brave. They were all soldiers. Even if the people went to the battlefield, they did not seem unfamiliar or afraid. They were basically no different from the Zhen army soldiers.

Lingshuang, Yueze and Li Xin thought that their million-strong army would easily break the city when besieging Huaning, but in fact it was the opposite. Due to the full defense of the people in the city, the coalition soldiers could not attack for a long time. The troops in the front were exhausted, and the troops behind immediately took over and fought in turns, but even so, they still could not break through the defense of Huaning.

The battle continued endlessly. The coalition forces had launched a full-scale attack at noon and continued until dusk. The million-strong army had failed to tear open a gap in Huaning's city defense.

At this time, Lingshuang, Yueze, and Li Xin all took a deep breath in their hearts. They did not expect that the soldiers and civilians of Huaning were so tenacious and so fierce, which was completely different from the cities they had attacked before.

Seeing that it was getting darker and darker, they had to light torches to continue fighting. They couldn't help but start to consider whether to continue this battle. At this time, the camp that had not been set up in the rear of the coalition forces suddenly became chaotic.

A Zhen army that came out of nowhere suddenly rushed out from the rear of the coalition camp and broke into the coalition camp at lightning speed.

This change came too suddenly. Not to mention that the coalition forces were unprepared, even if they discovered the enemy first, they could not prevent it.

First, the camp had not been set up yet, and the outer wall was riddled with holes, so how could it defend against the enemy's charge? Second, the main forces of the coalition were invested in the siege, and the number of soldiers left to camp was small, and they were all old, weak, sick and disabled. How could they be the opponent of the Zhen army?

This Zhen army had a small number of soldiers, at most only about 5,000 people, but it broke into the camp of the coalition as if it was in an empty space, cutting and killing anyone it saw, and killing the coalition soldiers who were camping, crying and screaming, and fleeing in all directions. The Zhen army was relentless, and while chasing and killing, they set fire everywhere. The coalition camp was stockpiled with military tents, food, and baggage. These things caught fire easily, and with the wind at night, the fire spread very quickly. In the blink of an eye, the flames in the camp rose several meters high.

Since the camp was on the west side of Huaning, close to the An and Huan armies, it was these two armies that first discovered that their camp was on fire.

When the soldiers below reported to Yue Ze and Li Xin, they were a little bit unconvinced. When they turned back, their faces changed drastically. Their camp was on fire right under their noses. What was going on?

Before the two of them could figure out what was going on, the soldiers who escaped from the camp had already run to them and reported to Yue Ze and Li Xin that the camp was attacked by the Zhen army and the enemy had now started to set fire to the camp.

When the two heard this, their heads buzzed and they couldn't come back to their senses for a long time.

The Zhen army sneaked into the camp? Where did this Zhen army come from? Why didn't we hear any news? Li Xin screamed strangely, grabbed the collar of the deserter, and asked angrily: "How many enemy troops are there? There is an enemy attack, why didn't you report it quickly?"

The deserter was so scared that his legs were weak and he couldn't stand steadily. He waved his hands and said: "It was...it was too dark. When...when we found the Zhen army, they were already close to us. There was no time to report...The Zhen army had a lot of troops, estimated...estimated to be tens of thousands of people..."

Damn it! Li Xin pushed the deserter away fiercely. It was a great shame that tens of thousands of Zhen troops had sneaked into their camp without anyone noticing! He turned to look at Yue Ze, who was also panicking, and asked, "Brother Wang, what should we do now?"

"No way..." Yue Ze grinned and muttered, "Hurry up and call back the troops, and go back to rescue the camp with all your strength!"

"Alas!" Li Xin stamped his feet hard and shouted to the people on his left and right, "Why are you still standing here stupidly? Go and call the horn!"

The people around woke up as if from a dream, and shouted and agreed, and started to call the horn.

When the horn sounded on their side, not only did the An and Huan armies retreat, but even the Feng, Zhen, and Yu armies attacking the city on the other three sides were also affected. The soldiers attacking the city didn't know why, and quickly withdrew from the battlefield like a receding tide.

Soon, the soldiers sent by Yue Ze and Li Xin to report the news rushed to Feng Army, Zhen Army and Yu Army respectively, and told Tang Yin, Ling Shuang and Gu Anmin about the attack on their camp.

After hearing this, they all trembled in their hearts. The camp was attacked, which was no small matter. Once the food and supplies were damaged, it would directly affect the future battle situation.

At this time, even if people didn't want to go back to rescue, it was no use. The rear team of Feng, Zhen and Yu Army became the front team and rushed back to the camp together.

The five countries' armies that attacked Huaning all withdrew. At this time, the Zhen Army that invaded the camp had already fled without a trace, leaving only the fire burning in the camp. The soldiers of the coalition forces didn't care about chasing the enemy, and all put out the fire and rescue food and supplies.

It was not until late at night that the coalition forces finally put out all the fires in the camp. At this time, looking at the coalition camp again, it was devastated and in a mess, and the burned food and supplies with green smoke could be seen everywhere.

This fire caused considerable damage to the coalition forces.

Among them, the heaviest losses were grain and fodder. It is a rough estimate that the amount of grain and fodder that was damaged was at least tens of thousands of stones. In addition, at least tens of thousands of tents were burned and damaged, and many military uniforms and weapons were destroyed.

This situation made the coalition soldiers dumbfounded and didn't know what to do.

Looking at the gloomy and silent monarchs, Kong Qing coughed and said: "Huaning belongs to Xitang Acropolis, and the people have always been loyal to the court. Even if the current king is a fool, the people are still loyal to him, so we have to fight Hua Ning is not as easy as imagined. In addition, Zhao Huan has always been very cunning in using troops, and our army is not familiar with the terrain in Hua Ning, so it is easy to suffer losses, so... our army is in a hurry before its foothold is stable. It is unwise to attack Huaning and it also gives the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it!"

What he said was obviously an analysis, but in reality he was complaining about the wrong decisions made by Lingshuang, Yueze, and Li Xin. These three monarchs were not fools. Of course they could hear what he was saying, and their expressions became increasingly ugly.

Li Xin snorted heavily and said coldly: "Why didn't you tell me at the beginning? Now that we are talking about these things, how can we use computers? The most urgent thing is to think about what we should do next!"

Too much material was damaged this time. If it cannot be replenished in time, the coalition forces will be unable to move forward and will eventually be forced to retreat. The matter was of great importance. As a loyal general, Kong Qing did not dare to say anything and kept his head down.

Li Xin didn't expect him to come up with any good ideas at all. He turned to look at Tang Yin, rubbed his hands in embarrassment and asked with a dry smile: "Brother Wang, what do you think?"

At first, he, Yue Ze and Ling Shuang ignored Tang Yin's dissuasion and insisted on attacking Hua Ning. Now that they had suffered such heavy losses, they couldn't hold their heads high in front of Tang Yin and felt that they were at fault.

what to do? Tang Yin also wants to know what he should do now. He pondered for a while and said: "First count the specific losses so that you are aware of them, and then think of countermeasures!"

"Yes, yes, yes! Brother Wang is right!" Li Xin nodded repeatedly, and then shouted to the Huan Army generals behind him: "Why don't you do it quickly?"

The five-nation coalition forces moved together and began to make detailed statistics on their own losses. There were 12,000 damaged tents, of which about 10,000 were completely scrapped. In other words, in the coming battle, at least 200,000 to 300,000 coalition soldiers will have no tents to live in and will have to sleep in the open air. . A total of 60,000 stones of grain and grass were damaged, which was more than half of the total grain and grass of the coalition forces. A total of more than 300 large weapons such as trebuchets, rams, and arrow towers were damaged. As for military uniforms and weapons, they were countless.

In addition, the five-nation coalition forces suffered a total of 70,000 to 80,000 casualties on the day they stormed Hua Ning. After only one day of fierce fighting, the losses suffered by the coalition forces can be described as heavy.

Listening to the generals' reports, Tang Yin felt a headache. The problem facing the coalition forces now was not whether they could capture Hua Ning as soon as possible, but whether they could continue to fight.

Insufficient tents will only cause some soldiers to not get adequate rest, while insufficient food and grass will determine the life and death of the entire army.

He thought for a moment and asked Yue Ze and Li Xin: "When will the next batch of food and grass for our army be delivered?"

Yue Ze replied in a low voice: "It will take half a month at the earliest."

It takes so long...

Tang Yin frowned even more tightly. Judging from the food and grass currently left in the army, even if he was frugal, he would only be able to hold on for ten days at most. If he wanted to avoid being forced to retreat, there were only two ways, either to capture Hua Ning as soon as possible, or to directly attack Hua Ning. Attacked Xitang.

He looked at Xiao Muqing and Ziying and said, "Our army gave up attacking Huaning and Tongcheng and went directly to attack Xitang. What do you two think?"

Now he no longer wants to ask Lingshuang, Yueze, and Li Xin for their opinions. None of these three monarchs can fight with soldiers. Asking them would be better than asking his own generals!

Ziying said worriedly: "Abandoning the attack on Huaning and Tongcheng will always cause hidden dangers in the rear of our army. First, the supply line will be cut off. Second, when our army attacks Xitang with all its strength, Huaning and Tongcheng will The Zhen troops from the two places will definitely attack our army's rear. If one of them fails, our army will be defeated. "

"Our army's logistics can no longer be counted on." Tang Yin said sternly: "The food and grass will be delivered in half a month, and with the food and grass currently left by our army, we can only last for ten days at most. If we do not want to withdraw our troops, our army must be there Something can be done within ten days. But as you all saw in today's battle, it is too difficult and basically impossible to capture Huaning in a short time. That's why I proposed to take Xitang directly and use our usual tactics. Destroy the enemy!"

A common tactic? Xiao Muqing's eyes suddenly lit up and she blurted out: "Surround the area for reinforcements?"

"That's right!" Tang Yin said: "Pretend to attack Xitang and draw the garrisons from Huaning and Tongcheng out of the city to help!"