A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 238 Killing Enemies and Losing

night.

The late spring cold weather erodes the rammed earth castle.

The flags on the city walls were frozen with frost and could not be blown away by the wind.

Li Yi was wearing iron armor and a battle robe, and inspected the city defenses with the sword at his waist.

The feathered arrows shot by the Zheng army during the day were still stuck diagonally in the battlements, their tails covered with frost crystals.

Under the city, there were still some remaining battering rams of the Zheng army. After being destroyed by the Tang army's rockets, they lay on the ground like a frozen centipede.

The iron armor on his body was like an ice cube wrapped around him. Although he had a sheepskin vest inside and a brocade fur robe outside, he still shivered with cold. The ordinary soldiers had neither brocade fur nor sheepskin vests, so they were even colder.

From the corner tower in front, the humming of soldiers could be heard.

Several soldiers were warming themselves by the fire with their backs hunched and their necks shrunk. A group of ten people were divided into two shifts, and each shift would be on duty for a while before quickly switching back to warm themselves by the fire.

"My brother went to Liaodong and died of starvation at the foot of the green mountains. Now I am pulling the dragon boat and blocking the Sui embankment... The world is starving today, and there is no food left..."

This song was one that Yiyi had heard villagers sing before in Yusu Township. It was called the Song of the Boatmen. It was sung by the civilians who were conscripted to pull the dragon boats when Yang Guang went to Jiangdu for the third time.

In the hoarse voice, the firelight shone on their faces,

These soldiers on night watch were thinly dressed and their armor was damaged.

Li Yi walked in,

The singing stopped abruptly.

The soldiers hurriedly stood up, and one of them nervously explained, "We're a group of people, divided into two groups, taking turns to guard. We take turns to come here to avoid the wind and warm ourselves by the fire. It's really too cold outside..."

Li Yi approached and said, "Give me a seat. It's almost February and it's still so cold. My hands are almost frozen. I want to warm myself up too."

Seeing him like this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and quickly made room for him.

The fire was not big, and it could barely provide some warmth, but my back was still cold. Fortunately, this corner building could block some of the wind.

While warming himself by the fire, Li Yi chatted with them.

Among the five people roasting by the fire, one was a soldier from Luoyang, who was captured by Li Yi and his men when they broke into the fort.

Li Yi formed several supplementary battalions with the two thousand prisoners.

More than a hundred people were lost in the daytime fighting, so more than a hundred prisoners were selected from the replenishment camp to replenish the troops.

"Your boatman sings well. Has he ever rowed a dragon boat before?"

"To the General, I used to be a canal boatman. Later, I pulled a dragon boat to Jiangdu. Later, I was incorporated into Wang Shichong's army and served as a grain boatman to Luoyang. Later, I was incorporated into the army..."

"What's your name?"

"Chen Lingjiao, nicknamed Lao Lu, is from Jianghuai."

"Have you ever been a helmsman?"

"Does the steward also know what our canal workers said?"

Li Yi took off the dry food bag and grabbed two handfuls of fried rice for each person. "It's fried and salted, and it's quite fragrant even when chewed dry."

No one expected Li Yi to be so easy to talk to. They all stretched out their hands to take it and kept thanking him.

Chen Lingjiao was born in the Jiangnan water town, his family was in the countryside of Yangzhou. He learned to swim from a young age. When he grew up, he worked as a fisherman and a boatman. Later, he became a helmsman on the canal. Later, he was conscripted to pull a dragon boat. When the world was in chaos, he became a boatman transporting military supplies.
After following Wang Shichong to Luoyang, he was never able to return to his hometown. He rose from a laborer to a soldier, surviving one battle after another by chance.

"I heard that the Jianghuai spearmen and crossbowmen are very elite, and they are the foundation of Wang Shichong's survival over the years."

Chen Lingjiao said that he was good with the rifle, but his bow and crossbow skills were average. In the past, he made a living on the river, and whether it was pulling the net, paddling, or steering, it all required a lot of strength.

"I believe that you will be able to return to your hometown sooner or later, and by then you will definitely return home in glory as an officer." Li Yi patted him on the shoulder.

Chen Lingjiao didn't respond.

In fact, he had been away from home for several years and had no news from home. He didn't know whether his parents and brothers were still there. He had sent letters home, but there was no reply.

He didn't even think about the future anymore.

In this troubled time, who would have thought that I would not understand today?

After eating a handful of fried rice, Li Yi got up and left to continue patrolling.

Luo Wu and the others continued to follow the guards.

"Do you miss home?" Li Yi asked.

"Yes." These personal soldiers from Luojiabao all said in unison. Although they had been away from home for less than a month, they already missed home.

At the foot of the mountain,

The camp was lit with lights.

After completing his patrol, Li Yi, who was about to leave, saw an inscription that read, "I hope to return home soon."

Snowflakes are falling,

The four words were a little blurry, and I didn't know when and which month they were left by the soldier guarding the fort, let alone whether he was still there.

The north wind blew all night,

Tianming,

Li Yi got up early,
He grabbed a handful of snow and wiped his face, wiping it until it turned red, and he felt refreshed.

Breakfast is corn rice.

Although a lot of food was seized in the fort, there were no vegetables, only some salt and pickles.

Fortunately, Li Yi brought some cured meat when he was escorting the grain.

Cut the bacon into dice and steam it in rice. The steamed corn rice absorbs the oil and becomes salty, fragrant and soft.

Each soldier was also given a small piece of steamed bacon. Although it was only a tiny bit in size, it was still nice to be able to eat it during wartime.

Luo Shixin had two dark circles under his eyes, it seemed that he didn't sleep well last night.

"Today's offensive is expected to be fierce, and there will be no shortage of casualties."

"Alas, we can only fight against the enemy. If we can't resist, we will send out a beacon to ask the prince for help." Li Yi could only do so.

At three o'clock in the morning,

The sun was completely blocked by dark clouds.
The horn sound of the Zheng army tore through the wind and snow,

Cheng Yaojin personally led two thousand infantrymen, pushing the iron-clad ladders up the slope.

Last night, the Zheng army did not launch a night attack, and the Tang army in the fort did not leave the city to launch a night attack. It was a rare night of peace and tranquility.
Sixteen crossbows are on standby in the castle.

On the city walls and on the walls stood rows of archers.

They only need to obey the orders of the commander on the city wall and fire into the air when the enemy approaches the city wall in large numbers.

"Two hundred steps!"

"One hundred and fifty steps!" An officer kept estimating the distance. Experienced officers could estimate the distance very accurately.

Li Yi was a complete layman, so he gave full authority to command the battle to Luo Shixin.

Qiu Shenyan, Li Dejiang, Wu Junya, Ji Sigong and others were arranged to garrison the remaining forts respectively.

When the soldiers under Cheng Yaojin's command approached a hundred paces,
A general under Luo Shixin brandished his sword and shouted, "Release!"

Sixteen crossbows fired simultaneously, and the taut cowhide strings instantly shot out the thick and long crossbow spears.

War is cruel, especially this kind of offensive and defensive war.
Both sides come and go,

They all started by firing long-range weapons at each other.
Arrows and crossbows were flying, the sky was full of rain of arrows, and the air was filled with the sound of arrows breaking through the air.

From time to time, someone would scream in pain after being hit by an arrow.

The Zheng army also organized many archers to cover the infantry and ladders.

It's purely a war of attrition.

Every moment someone is shot and dies.

Regardless of whether they were inside the castle or outside, both sides were extremely short of military doctors. Many wounded soldiers had no one to take care of them. Even if they were carried down,
It's just a matter of lying down in another place and enduring it.

Li Yi and Luo Shixin had a total of 2,000 soldiers under their command, plus 1,000 captured and surrendered soldiers, but they didn't even have a military doctor.

The soldiers can only deal with it themselves or with the help of their comrades.
Medicines are also in short supply.

Li Yi frowned at this situation. He could not help the commander on the city wall, so he quickly drew a group of surrendered soldiers from the prisoner replenishment camp.

They were arranged on the spot as field medical soldiers, a stretcher team was organized, a wounded camp was set up, and nurses were arranged.

In the absence of medical care and medicine,

All Li Yi could do was to arrange a stretcher team to carry the seriously injured soldiers down as soon as possible, clean the wounds, bandage them and stop the bleeding. That was all he could do. For the lightly injured soldiers, medical staff went up to help stop the bleeding and bandage them.

Boil more hot water, disinfect as much as possible, keep it clean and hygienic to reduce infection.

It hurts, but I have to bear it.

It all depends on whether life is tough or not.

While he was busy setting up a makeshift field hospital, arranging stretcher teams and medical staff, he also arranged for better meals to be prepared for the patients and wrote a summary.

In the afternoon,

The stretcher team is overwhelmed.
There are too many wounded soldiers.
As Luo Shixin expected, there will be heavy casualties today.

The offensive from the mountain came wave after wave, like a tide.

With this style of fighting, they killed 800 enemies but lost 3,000 of their own men. However, Wang Shichong and Bing Yuanzhen were pressing hard, so Qin Qiong and his men had no choice but to go ahead.

Eight thousand men attacked a stronghold defended by two thousand.

Unless there is a huge difference in morale or the level of commanders,
Otherwise, it would be difficult to capture the castle within three days if there was no shortage of food or water.

Now Qin Qiong and his men can only hope that the defenders in the castle do not have enough willpower to hold on.

When Luo Shixin sent someone to Li Yi to ask for reinforcements,
Liu Heizi told him, "My Lord, there is not one left of the thousand men in the replenishment camp. There is no one to replace them."

"What about people?"

"More than a hundred people have been transferred to the wounded battalion, and the rest have been sent to replenish."

Luo Shixin's men urged them to move forward, saying that the attack was too fierce and the brothers had suffered heavy casualties, so they needed reinforcements immediately.

Li Yi was helpless.
"Send all the more than one hundred stretcher bearers and nurses from the wounded battalion."

Li Yi personally led these more than one hundred people to the top of the city wall.
I found blood everywhere on the city wall, and the air was filled with a strong smell of blood.

Qin Qiong mobilized a large number of archers, and the arrows never stopped shooting. This kind of suppression by long-range troops caused heavy losses to the defenders.

Even though they were protected by castles, battlements, etc., the huge disparity in the number of archers still caused them to suffer continuous losses.

Under the city,

The infantrymen held up large shields and formed a tortoise shield formation, which not only defended the front but also blocked the overhead.

They used a tortoise shield formation to cover their charge up the slope to the city wall.

After a day and a half of attack, the two-meter-wide and two-meter-deep moat had been filled up in many sections and had completely lost its defensive function.

"Gold juice!"

A captain shouted loudly, and dozens of cauldrons on the top of the city wall were boiling with foul-smelling golden juice.

"Pour!"

The golden liquid poured down from the top of the city wall.

The foul-smelling golden liquid poured onto the soldiers' faces and bodies from the gaps in the shields. The scalding hot liquid made the soldiers scream in agony.

Soon, the turtle shield formation's attack was also broken.

The air was filled with a foul odor, mixed with the smell of cooked meat.

it's getting dark,

Finally, the sound of retreating troops came from the city.

Li Yi felt a little dry in the mouth.
Although he had participated in the Battle of Jingzhou and witnessed a larger-scale battle outside the city from the top of Gaocheng City, he was watching from a distance.
It’s not like now that I can feel the fighting at such a close distance.

He was wearing Ming Guang Armor and a rhinoceros skin armor. He was hit by several stray arrows today and was only able to avoid injury thanks to the double layer of armor.

Luo Shixin looked coldly at the retreating Zheng army.

"At least one thousand Zheng soldiers were killed today."

Li Yi said: "We have suffered a lot of casualties today."

"No less than seven hundred."

Li Yi's scalp tingled. "There are two thousand soldiers in Nangang Fort, and one thousand surrendered soldiers in the replacement camp, a total of three thousand people. Seven hundred died in battle today?"

"It's possible that 800 people would be killed in action. If we consider those who are severely injured or disabled and unable to fight again, the direct loss of troops would be at least 1,000."

"Then, can we still hold on tomorrow?" Li Yi asked.

Losing one-third of the troops in one day is an astonishing loss and will inevitably lead to a huge drop in morale.

"Fortunately, it was a battle to defend the city. If it was a field battle, with so many 3,000 people killed, they would have collapsed long ago." Luo Shixin said.

"Tomorrow, let's talk about it tomorrow."

Li Yi frowned, this was not going to work.

"Brother Luo, could you send someone to deliver a letter to General Qin tonight?"

(End of this chapter)