Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 217 The Battle for the Beach
On the twelfth day of the second month of the third year of Qianfu, in Caozhou, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

A thick fog rolled in over the Baigou River, enveloping half of Caozhou City.

At this moment, the sound of gongs and drums could be heard everywhere on the south city wall, and countless soldiers hurriedly rushed up the city wall from the back passageway.

These people gazed into the distance at the Baigou River, where they saw a huge fleet of ships hidden in the mist slowly sailing upstream.

Even though the soldiers on the city walls couldn't see the flags of the fleet clearly, they still knew that it must be the Tang army coming down from the west.

Previously, because the Baoyi Army's cavalry kept advancing to the vicinity of Caozhou City, the Cao soldiers at the time thought that the Tang army's next phase of offensive would be launched by land. Unexpectedly, the Tang army came down by boat.

However, despite the surprise, the Cao army was not too alarmed, because at this moment, Caozhou City was not afraid of the enemy troops coming from the water.

Why? Because Caozhou is the gateway to the Baigou River.

It connects Yanzhou, Yunzhou, and Qingzhou to the east and Bianzhou to the west, and a large amount of goods and cargo ships would travel on the Baigou waterway.

In addition, Caozhou itself is also an economic hub.

The 240 li journey from here to Songzhou and the 160 li journey to Puzhou are all situated on the alluvial plain south of the Yellow River, a flat and fertile land stretching for thousands of miles.

In addition, the Baigou River to the south has abundant water, which not only provides drinking water for Caozhou City, but also irrigates the surrounding farmland.

Therefore, Caozhou is suitable for mulberry and hemp cultivation, and its people are mostly engaged in weaving, resulting in a developed agriculture and weaving industry.

Meanwhile, the silk and grain produced in Caozhou were transported to various parts of the Central Plains via the Baigou River.

For this reason, the defense of Caozhou City was extremely high, far exceeding that of ordinary state capitals.

Because the Baigou River flows to the south, the moat of Caozhou is directly connected to the Baigou River, forming a typical "water surrounding the city" defense system.

The city of Caozhou is surrounded by a moat, which is between 20 and 30 meters wide and about 3 to 4 meters deep. Moreover, because it is a flowing waterway, it is very difficult to cut off the moat.

Before the Cao army captured Caozhou, the wide moat was full of merchant ships. However, after the Cao army entered Caozhou, the trade routes were cut off. The Cao army then placed a large number of wooden stakes and spikes underwater to prevent large ships from approaching the Caozhou city walls.

The Caozhou city wall was a typical square rammed earth wall at that time, with a circumference of fourteen li and a height of eight meters.

Don't assume that the Caozhou city wall is flimsy just because it's only made of rammed earth and is so high.

In fact, the Caozhou city wall was mainly constructed of rammed loess, interspersed with red clay and Caozhou's unique quartz stone, making it hard and dense, in no way inferior to brick and stone.

Moreover, the city wall at this time was not a thin wall, but a huge trapezoidal mound of earth.

The foundation of Caozhou City was twelve meters wide at the bottom and six meters wide at the top, allowing cavalry to gallop freely and catapults to be set up to attack targets on the water.

Unfortunately, during the attack on Caozhou City, the local Caozhou soldiers had already burned the catapults, so the Caozhou army was unable to launch a catapult attack on the Baoyi Army on the Baigou River.

Like other cities, Caozhou City also has four gates: east, west, south, and north. All the gates are made of brick and stone arch structures and are covered with iron for fire prevention.

Along the moat outside the city, there was a barrier wall about two meters high, used to block enemy attacks from the water.

In addition, there is a small inner city at the east, west, and north gates, which serves as an outer perimeter guard zone and is used to garrison small elite troops.

Each of the four doors has a two-story pavilion, which is five meters high.

In other words, the soldiers, standing on the city tower, had a full thirteen meters of view, allowing them to have a clear view of the enemy's situation on all sides.

Originally, Caozhou City had vulnerabilities, because the process of the Cao army breaking through Caozhou City actually caused considerable damage to the city's defenses.

However, in the battle outside Yuanju City, Cao Shixiong, the commander of Puzhou, was killed in battle, and Huang Cun, the commander of Cao's army, fled eastward in fear and returned to Caozhou.

After that, the Cao army began to repair Caozhou City, strengthening its defenses on the one hand and placing palisades under the moat on the other.

Although Huang Cun later led the main force to attack Yuncheng, he still left his ninth brother Huang Qin in the city. At this time, there were 5,000 soldiers in Caozhou City, most of whom were veterans.

With a large army and a fortified city, they dared not venture out of the city to engage the Tang army in open battle, but they were confident that they could hold Caozhou and wear down the last inch of the Tang army.

……

As the alarm bells on the four city towers of Caozhou rang louder and louder, some of the outposts and cavalrymen who were out on patrol rushed back.

They were previously responsible for intercepting the Baoyi Army's cavalry, so they were stationed within ten miles west of the city. Now, these cavalrymen are rushing back because they discovered this huge fleet on the Baigou River much earlier.

They need to send the intelligence back.

The last group of cavalry returned to the city before the gates closed. One of the valiant cavalrymen galloped all the way to the south gate, then dismounted and ran to the city tower.

There, Huang Qin, the commander of Caozhou City, frowned as he watched the approaching fleet. "Aren't there too many Tang soldiers? Tens of thousands of them have come out in full force?"
The Huang family was a powerful clan in Yuanju, with many members, each skilled in martial arts. However, none of them had actually served in the army. Therefore, while they were brave and valiant, they did not understand the composition of the Tang army.

He only noticed the large number of Tang soldiers, but didn't realize that a large portion of them were auxiliary personnel. Huang Qin didn't have this concept, because everyone in their peasant army was a soldier; as long as you had a wooden spear, you could go in.

At this moment, Huang Qin was worried when the burly cavalry general who had returned from outside rushed up to the city wall.

He came up and saw a jar of water on the table, so he picked it up and drank it down.

Huang Qin is not old, only in his early twenties this year. After all, he is the ninth child in his family, while his second brother Huang Chao is just over forty years old, which is the perfect age for starting a business.

The cavalryman was about the same age as Huang Qin, roughly in his prime. He was drinking too fast and was coughing.

Seeing this, Huang Qin slapped him hard on the back to help him catch his breath.

Upon seeing this, Huang Qin chuckled and scolded:
"Huo Erlang, you're still so impulsive. If you choke to death like this, wouldn't people laugh their heads off?"

The man over there, Huo Erlang, whose real name is Huo Cun, is from Handan. He and his ilk have close ties with the heroes of Caozhou and came to join them during the Huang Chao Rebellion.

Huo Cun was a valiant cavalryman, often ranking first among all the armies. In addition, he was about the same age as Huang Qin, so the two often addressed each other as brothers.

At this moment, Huo Cun shook his head and laughed:
"I'd rather die on Zhao's belly; that's the destiny of us Hebei heroes!"

Huang Qin laughed heartily and said generously:

"You're too easily swayed. We'll follow my second brother to Chang'an, and you'll have your fill of all those noble ladies there! You can do whatever you want with them!"

The two joked around, and the morale on the city wall was indeed restored quite a bit. Then Huang Qin pulled Huo Cun into the city tower and went up to the second floor.

Only the two of them were upstairs at that moment, and Huang Qin said with concern:

"The Tang army has mobilized all its forces. It seems that after you and your men captured Yuncheng, they are really anxious."

Huo Cun shook his head and explained to Huang Qin:

“Ninth Brother, when we went out on scouting, we followed the fleet all the way and roughly figured out the situation of this Tang army.”

Upon hearing this, Huang Qin quickly asked Huo Cun to sit down and speak.

Huo Cun was impatient and said directly:
"This should be the former Baoyi Army. I have seen these fleets flying their flags along the way. There are about two hundred ships in the fleet, but I can't calculate how many people are on board."

Unlike Huo Cunchun, a rough man from Handan, the Huang family members were generally well-educated. At this moment, based on the large ship he saw discharging water, Huang Qin roughly estimated that this Tang army was indeed about the same as he had estimated, really around ten thousand men.

However, if what Huo Cun just said is true, then the number of 10,000 people is likely greatly exaggerated.

If only the Baoyi Army came, their strength should not exceed five thousand. After all, they had just fought with the Baoyi Army. If the Baoyi Army had more than ten thousand troops, would they only send six hundred armored soldiers out of the city?
Therefore, Huang Qin estimated that the true strength of the Baoyi Army should be around five thousand, which is comparable to the number of the bandit army in their city.

Logically speaking, if the attacking side has fewer troops than the defending side, then the defending side should have no worries.

But Huang Qin felt no joy at all when he heard that the Baoyi Army had arrived.

In fact, the reason why the rebel army dared not leave the city at this moment was because they had lost confidence after being defeated by this militia.

They had previously won great victories in the battles of Tianping and Yicheng, to the point that they thought the Tang army's strength was nothing special and that they could easily dominate the world.

However, the battle outside Yuanju City completely stunned them. At that time, they regarded the Baoyi Army as the general fighting force of the Tang army. So when the main force of the Caozhou Cao Army went east, they really did not leave Caozhou City.

These guerrilla generals, skilled in maneuver but lacking in conventional warfare, had never heard of a principle for defending a city: to defend the city, first defend the stronghold.

They did not build military camps outside the city to control enough battlefield space, so they soon realized where they went wrong.

Just as Huang Qin and Huo Cun were about to discuss the defense of the city, a servant downstairs shouted:
"Jiulang, the enemy is attacking! Come out quickly!"

Upon hearing this, Huang Qin hurriedly ran to the railing outside the second floor and looked into the distance. He saw countless small boats rowing their oars and rushing towards the shore.

Because no troops were stationed outside the city, these small boats faced no obstacles and raced across the riverbank, beyond the reach of the arrows from the grass army on the city walls.

Seeing the Baoyi Army's small boat approaching the shore, Huang Qin became anxious and hurriedly shouted to Huo Cun beside him:

"Erlang, immediately lead two hundred elite cavalrymen from the city to attack. Under no circumstances should the Baoyi Army be allowed to reach the shore!"

Huo Cun laughed heartily, raised his golden-topped jujube spear, and rushed towards the building.

Then Huang Qin clenched his fist and continued to look at the shore.

At this time, the first batch of small boats belonging to the Baoyi Army were about to dock.

(End of this chapter)