Chapter 79: Yang's Marshal said reasonable

  An Qingxu, upon receiving Cui Qianyou's report, that the attack on Tongguan had been halted due to a flood in the Jinshui River, which caused over 1,000 soldiers who were crossing and the corpses piled up like a bridge to be swept into the Yellow River, stamped his foot and sighed deeply.

  The Jinhe River was a formidable obstacle that could be said to be an insurmountable chasm in their minds, extremely frustrating. After the defeat of the Lingbao army, the bodies of countless Tang soldiers almost filled the Jinhe River, making it nearly impassable. Upon receiving Cui Jianyu's report, An Qingxu was overjoyed and repeatedly ordered Cui to launch an attack on Tongguan City at all costs. Cui did so, but ultimately failed, suffering a crushing defeat under the city walls. The sudden surge of water in the Jinhe River rendered all their efforts futile, leaving An Qingxu extremely disappointed.

  What was even more disappointing was that An Qingxu actually stopped attacking Tongguan City after the big water rose in the Forbidden Channel and led his army to retreat and rest.

  After receiving the message sent by Cui Jianyu, An Qingxu was furious and wanted to continue attacking, not giving the Tang army on the city wall a chance to breathe, striving to capture Tongguan City before the arrival of the Tang army's reinforcements.

  Anqing Xi clearly stated that if the Tang army's reinforcements arrived continuously, the difficulty of attacking Tongguan City would increase exponentially. Even if they could overcome the difficulties brought by the Jinhe River, it would be extremely difficult to climb over the city walls and occupy the city head with Tongguan City's high and steep terrain. He also ordered the continuation of the attack after receiving Cui Danyu's report and personally led a cavalry to rush to the vicinity of Cui Danyu's command post near Tongguan.

  Chui Kien-yu was in a dilemma after receiving An Ch'ing-hsiu's order to continue attacking.

  He has already ordered the entire army to retreat and regroup for another battle.

  If the soldiers were forced to fight again without rest, not to mention paying a greater price, the morale of the army would be greatly affected and it would be impossible to achieve any effect, wasting the lives of the soldiers. Therefore, he also urgently reported to An Qingxu, explaining the reasons clearly while immediately ordering the soldiers to rest, replenish food and water, and at the same time ordered his subordinates to prepare for the night attack, making all preparations.

  Although Cui Jianyu's order to stop the attack was a bit foolish, it was not unreasonable. An Qingxu arrived at Cui Jianyu's command post and listened to his explanation in person, which somewhat dispelled his anger. After roughly surveying the terrain of Tongguan City and listening to Cui Jianyu's report, he further understood that Tongguan City was easy to defend but difficult to attack. He did not blame Cui Jianyu any further, but instead discussed how to proceed with the attack.

  Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses are under the city of Tongguan, Han has already taken Tongguan, no matter what, it is impossible to retreat like this, even if they have just suffered a major loss, even if there are great difficulties in front of them, they must try again.

  "Attack the city tonight!" This was the conclusion reached by An Qingxu after gathering all the high-ranking generals for consultation.

  As for how to attack a city, they also had new ideas, that is, filling the earth and building roads, turning forbidden moats into thoroughfares.

  The east and north gates are too dangerous due to the terrain, making it unsuitable for deploying large-scale forces, so only a feint attack can be made in those directions. The main attack can only be launched at the south gate.

  But attacks in both directions will continue to be effective.

  After the order was given, the soldiers who had been resting for more than two hours immediately sprang into action, preparing to launch a continuous attack on Tongguan City under cover of night. The orders they received were: before the attack began, first fill in the moat outside the south gate.

  Outside Tongguan City, more than 100,000 people and horses have gathered. If each person takes a handful of mud, the moat can be filled up.

  The water flow in the ditch is much smaller than this afternoon, with a water level of only half the height of a small leg, and it is decreasing gradually. By tomorrow, it will be estimated to be around ankle height. If tens of thousands of people work together, they can fill up the ditch.

  Having made the decision, the soldiers immediately took action. Just over half an hour after Zhang Jian's Tang army arrived at Tong Pass, Cui Gan led the vanguard in launching a large-scale assault on the city again.

  When Yang Gui heard the military report that the rebels had attacked the city overnight, he wasn't surprised at all. However, when he climbed up to the top of the city wall and saw the torches flashing everywhere in the mountains and fields, he was still a bit shocked.

  Tens of thousands of horses and countless torches dotted the entire mountain wilderness with a starry sky, extremely magnificent.

  It's almost half a month now, and the moon is quite big. The moonlight has outlined the general contours of the mountains and fields, and the gathering of rebel soldiers can be vaguely seen, which is very intimidating. However, this does not pose too much pressure on the Tang army soldiers on the city wall. They have already withstood the brutal battle during the day, and the rebels almost climbed up to the city wall. Now that the rebels have not yet started attacking the city, the pressure they are under cannot be greater than it was during the day, let alone the fact that the rebels have not yet arrived at the foot of the city, but only marched along the eastern bank of the Forbidden Ditch.

  "General Yang, the rebels took advantage of the night to attack the city. It should just be a tactic to exhaust our troops and not let us rest, trying to drag down our soldiers!" Wang Silie, standing alongside Yang Hui on the gate tower, looked at the array of torches slowly advancing towards the Forbidden Canal and said with some doubt: "General, I'm a bit puzzled. Why did Cui Qianyou give up the opportunity to continue attacking during the day, abandoning nearly 10,000 soldiers under the city of Tongguan and stopping the attack? And then at night, he ordered his soldiers to attack again? Shouldn't he be doing this?"

  "General Wang, if my guess is correct, it should be An Qingxu who led the army to arrive and personally commanded the siege. Cui Gan Yu only launched a night attack after being forced by An Qingxu!" Yang Heng looked at Wang Silie and other generals, saying with great confidence: "The rebels attacked the city at night, definitely not expecting that our reinforcement troops had already arrived. They still thought they could take Tongguan before our reinforcements arrive! If they find out that our reinforcements have already arrived, their morale will be shaken, and it's possible they'll stop attacking soon!"

  "General Yang is right!" Pang Zhong added, "The rebels' attack today, regardless of the cost in casualties, is an attempt to take advantage of our reinforcements not having arrived yet and break through Tongguan. If they find out that our reinforcements have already arrived, they may stop attacking, or even retreat from Tongguan and go back to defend Luoyang."

  The other generals also echoed Yang Guozhong's words, and even Geshu Han, who had been silent all along, did not express any dissent.

  Everyone thinks so, Yang Kai's idea is even more determined, and he says: "You all think so, then Ben Shuai decides that after the rebel army starts attacking the city, it will counterattack with all its might. Let the rebel army produce a misunderstanding, I have a large number of reinforcements arriving at Tongguan, let their invincible faith be frustrated!"

  "Yes, Marshal! The subordinate will understand!" All the generals responded in unison.

  Yang Qian's face turned cold as he gave the order: "The Moat of Heaven is heavily guarded, and the rebels will not be able to launch a large-scale attack on the city head. They may try to fill the moat with mud or wood to cross it! We cannot let the rebels fill up the moat, we must give them a severe blow, and make sure the whole army is prepared to greet the rebel's attack with the densest arrows! Let them taste what it means for arrows to fall like rain!"

  "Yes, Marshal!"

  Just as all the generals responded in unison, the rebel army's war drums had already sounded, and countless soldiers were shouting loudly as they charged towards Jin Gou!