Tibet

As the saying goes, "The winter solstice falls in the middle of the month, and you can spend the winter wearing a coat." This year's winter solstice falls exactly in the middle of the month, so this year is a rare warm winter in the past twenty years.

Guanzhong, like Xiangyang, has only had a light snowfall so far. In previous years, the rivers would have been covered with thick ice, but this year, the rivers in Guanzhong only had a thin layer of ice, which would break with just a tap of a hammer. , you can even sail boats on the river.

This is also the main reason why the Yan army has sufficient food and grass supplies. It can transport a large amount of food and grass supplies through Bashui. However, the Yan army did not have such good luck when it retreated to Lantian County.

There were too many refugees in Lantian before. The small county town could not carry a population of 70,000 to 80,000 people. The little grain in the official warehouses had long been exhausted, and private grain supplies were also in short supply. The price of a bucket of rice had risen to 500 Wen.

But at this moment, nearly 40,000 Yan troops rushed into the county. They were like wolves and tigers, and their food consumption was astonishing. You can imagine what was waiting for the Yan troops. Even if they drove all the people out of the city, only The Yan army could only collect several thousand dan of grain. Each soldier could only receive one bucket of rice, which weighed twelve kilograms. Each soldier had to eat two kilograms per day, which could only last for six days at most.

Fortunately, they also found a lot of donkeys, mules and horses, as well as a small number of pigs and sheep. If they were all slaughtered to feed themselves, the Yan army could barely survive for about half a month.

The 200,000 troops will arrive in ten days at the latest, so Ashina Chengqing is not very worried about food. What he is really worried about is that the city wall is not tall and strong enough. It is just an ordinary small county town, two feet high and only 2 feet wide. One foot long, the perimeter of the city wall was only twenty miles. If the Tang army attacked the city by force, they probably wouldn't be able to defend it.

But fortunately, the Tang army did not have siege weapons. They needed to temporarily build siege ladders. After the Tang army built the siege weapons, the morale of their own army gradually recovered and they were able to fully defend the city wall. In the siege battle with the Tang army, they could Fight to the death and drag the Tang army into Lantian County.

Ashina Chengqing needs time, at most two days, for his army to fully return to its murderous nature.

At this time, the 40,000 Yan army almost entered a state of madness. All the soldiers were using the excuse of searching for food to break open the doors of houses and search for property, especially shops and large families. They looted over and over again and dug three feet into the ground to find cellars. .

At the end of the day, almost every soldier became rich. A large number of families who fled from Chang'an brought a lot of gold and silver, and were finally driven out of the city barehanded. The wealth they left behind became a feast for the Yan army.

The soldiers also ransacked the wine cellars of more than 20 wineries and restaurants and obtained a large amount of wine for them to drink as much as they could.

Lantian County is a place where wine is produced. It is mainly famous for its fruit wine. There are more than 20 wineries and more than a dozen wine shops. The concentration of these fruit wines is not low and the quantity is huge. The soldiers of the Yan army are like a fish in water. Many soldiers He was extremely drunk and was dragged back to the barracks by his companions. The whole city was filled with the smell of alcohol.

The only regret is that there are no women. All men, women and children were driven out of the city, including young women. This made the Yan army soldiers very regretful. They would have detained the young women if they had known about it.

Many soldiers also went to the brothels and brothels in the city to search to see if they could find the women who were hiding and did not escape. The results were all disappointing. Except for the old people who were killed because they did not want to leave home, the entire Lantian County again He is also a living county citizen, and there are soldiers everywhere.

Li Ye's army arrived at Lantian County at noon and set up camp three miles south of the city. They used hundreds of captured tents to build the camp. After cleaning up the military supplies and personal belongings in the original camp, the entire camp was The camp was given to the residents of Lantian County. Wang Wei served as the chief officer of the refugee camp, and dozens of officials and more than a thousand soldiers were responsible for assisting in management.

Ashina Chengqing stood on the top of the city, looking at the Tang Army camp in the distance. The Tang Army camp was still busy, and large white tents had been erected. You could see groups of Tang troops dragging long tents from a distance. The trees were straight and thick. At first glance, they were not made of materials for camp fences, but wood used for siege ladders.

Lieutenant General Gao Xiuyan whispered: "Lieutenant, Li Ye should have found out how much food there is in the city. Knowing that we can't survive for a few days, he is planning to use food as weapons to put us in a desperate situation!"

Ashina Chengqing sneered: "You underestimate Li Ye too much. His goal is Chang'an, so he won't waste time with us here. Have you forgotten how he broke into our camp?"

"The lieutenant said those firebirds?"

Ashina Chengqing nodded, "He has tasted the benefits of the fire attack, and he will definitely come back a second time to burn Lantian County."

"Ah! What should I do?"

Gao Xiuyan asked anxiously: "If the Tang army really burns the city, we can't deal with it?"

Ashina Chengqing was also troubled by this matter. He knew clearly that the Tang army was going to burn the city, but he couldn't think of a good way.

Gao Xiuyan gritted his teeth and said, "How about I lead an army to attack now? I will kill the enemy by surprise!"

Ashina Chengqing snorted coldly, "How many soldiers in the city are still able to stand up?"

Gao Xiuyan blushed and did not dare to say anything. He let the soldiers drink, but failed to stop them in time. As a result, many soldiers became drunk.

Fortunately, the Tang army didn't know, otherwise the Tang army would have attacked with all its strength, and they would have been unable to resist.

"Lieutenant, all brothers will return to normal tomorrow. I suggest that we go out with all our strength tomorrow and fight to the death with the Tang army!"

Ashina Chengqing immediately shouted angrily: "Attack! Attack! You idiot has been wanting to attack all day long. Our task is to hold off the Tang army and wait for the main reinforcements to arrive. If we are all gone, what will happen to Chang'an? What will the emperor do?"

Gao Xiuyan felt aggrieved and had no choice but to remain silent.

In fact, Gao Xiuyan had long discovered that Ashina Chengqing was very powerful as a strategist, but he had a fatal weakness. He lacked the courage of a fierce general and did not dare to confront the Tang army directly. He always considered how to delay the Tang army. Such a deployment was too passive.

Ashina Chengqing seemed to understand his slander against him, so he couldn't help but glared at Gao Xiuyan, and then asked: "How many soldiers are there who can move now?"

"About 20,000 people!"

"Demolish an open space in the city, prepare a lot of water, and prepare a lot of clean smoke defenses."

"I humbly obey my orders!"

Gao Xiuyan paused for a moment and then said: "There is a huge open space over the City God's Temple. Let's demolish the surrounding houses."

"Okay! Do it quickly. You must finish it before dark."

Ashina Chengqing was actually not sure whether the Tang army would attack with fire, but in order to prevent any eventuality, he had to be prepared.

The best way he thought of was to prepare an open space first. Once the Tang army used firebirds to set fire, his soldiers had to have a place to hide. As long as they hid for a night, the rest of the city would be burned to white ground, and they would no longer have to fear fire attacks.

In addition, there must be some defenders on the city gate, and some large rocks must be removed to prevent the Tang army from using battering rams. Although Lantian County has a moat and a suspension bridge, it can be easily demolished.

Ashina Chengqing let out a long sigh. He tried his best to think about defense, but in the end there were loopholes everywhere. He could think of it, but Li Ye couldn't think of it?

The cavalry commander on the left, Li Chengdan, said: "Captain, if the Tang army really attacks with fire, the whole city will be burned. Why don't we evacuate the county and go north to avoid being trapped in the county."

"nonsense!"

Ashina Chengqing angrily rebuked: "Withdraw from the county and stand up to resist the Tang army's pursuit. I asked your cavalry to cover the army's retreat north. You ran faster than rabbits and five thousand soldiers were massacred."

If you abandon the county seat again and your cavalry can escape, what will happen to the thirty thousand infantry?

If you are willing to lead the cavalry to attack the Tang Army camp now, I will lead the infantry to retreat! "