Chapter 180: Attack and Defense in the City

Filled with bewilderment and resentment, Gongsun Zan fled back to Yijing City.

Of the thousands of cavalry he had led out of the city, less than a thousand returned.

But the most fatal blow was that, in order to welcome them, the city gates were wide open, allowing the prepared Yuan army to follow closely and break through the gates!

Now, both sides were facing a street battle where every inch of ground was contested!

Gongsun Zan looked down from the watchtower, seeing the dark mass of Yuan soldiers pouring into the city gate in droves, which made his face even more grim.

He had not yet recovered from the defeat of last night, but the enemy obviously would not wait for him.

At this critical moment of life and death, a trace of ruthlessness appeared on his face as he began to issue orders.

Upon receiving their orders, Gongsun Zan's soldiers rushed into the watchtowers to defend them to the death.

The Yuan army soldiers who poured into the city were shocked by the scene before them.

Guarding the dozens of huge watchtowers were hundreds of smaller towers, several feet high; this was the watchtower formation specially built by Yijing for defense!

While the Yuan army was momentarily stunned, archers of Gongsun Zan's army popped their heads out from the tops of hundreds of watchtowers, drew their strong bows, and continuously shot arrows at the Yuan army in the open space below, creating a rain of arrows.

The Yuan army, crowded together, was caught off guard, and many were hit by arrows and fell to the ground, while the rest quickly raised wooden shields to protect their heads.

The soldiers who were wounded by arrows could only scream as they desperately crawled on the ground, trying to find a place to shield their bodies.

Some people aimed at the soldiers holding shields and tried to crawl under their bodies to avoid the arrows. As a result, the standing and lying soldiers were in a chaotic mess, their formation was disrupted, and they were unable to raise their heads under the rain of arrows.

Zhang He had already broken into the city gate at this time. Seeing this, he shouted loudly: "Break into the enemy's watchtowers, don't stop!"

Only then did the soldiers wake up from their dream and rushed towards the nearest watchtower, shouting.

A Yuan army soldier, carrying a knife, had just rushed in when he let out a scream. The people next to him watched as he retreated, several spears stuck in his body, the spearheads deeply embedded.

Several Gongsun Zan soldiers, holding long spears, forcefully pushed him out. The soldier's screams grew weaker and weaker until he fell to the ground and died.

Everyone was shocked; there were soldiers specifically defending the inside of these watchtowers!

In the moment of this daze, arrows began to rain down again, and the Yuan army was caught in a dilemma.

The cities that the Yuan army had attacked before were all low, flat houses. They had never encountered such high-reaching watchtowers, and for a time, they were at a loss.

Zhang He led his troops to seize a watchtower. Several spears thrust at him. Zhang He dodged to the side and, with a backhand thrust, stabbed to death a soldier who was trying to sneak attack him.

He led his men through a bloody battle, finally reaching the top of the watchtower and killing all the archers on it.

He looked down from the top of the tower and saw soldiers, led by various generals, fighting with the enemy inside the watchtowers. The most conspicuous was another fierce general, Wen Chou.

He was fully armored and riding a horse, directly charging into the watchtowers, using the force of the impact to knock all the soldiers inside away, and then using his long knife to chop and kill all the enemy soldiers.

Seeing the small watchtowers falling one after another, the dozens of tallest watchtowers in the center finally began to take action.

Gongsun Zan's soldiers tightened the crossbow cranks and pushed out huge crossbow carts, aiming them at the small watchtowers below!

Zhang He looked up and cursed, quickly jumping into the tower. As soon as he left, a huge crossbow bolt shot down from above, piercing through the floor next to him, giving Zhang He a cold sweat.

With the help of the crossbow carts, Gongsun Zan's army firmly suppressed the Yuan army outside the dozens of tall watchtowers. Ju Shou, who was overseeing the rear, saw that the offensive was blocked and ordered everyone to temporarily retreat, seeking obstacles to hide behind.

Ju Shou stood at the city gate, ordering the soldiers to push siege equipment such as battering rams into the city. However, the city was narrow, and the siege equipment was difficult to maneuver, blocking the path of his own soldiers instead.

The most effective equipment for breaking through the tall watchtowers should be cloud ladders. Although this thing was not as tall as the watchtowers, it could at least allow soldiers to shoot at each other, and if they got close enough, they could take the opportunity to jump onto the enemy's watchtower.

However, due to the obstruction of the city gate, the cloud ladders could not be pushed in unless a section of the city wall was completely demolished.

Either the cloud ladder components could be transported into the city and assembled on-site, but who knew how long that would take to assemble.

Ju Shou thought that the only plan for now was to use the pit-digging method.

Thinking of this, he was still very surprised that Yuan Xi had actually thought of the same thing as him. Why had he changed so much in these three years?

You should know that three years ago, no one would have favored this weak-natured son of a concubine!

Ju Shou asked Zhang He to urge the soldiers to build fortifications and steadily advance, while he himself retreated out of the city and returned to Yuan Shao's main camp.

At this time, there were only a few people in the camp. Most of the generals and strategists were supervising the battle. This battle of Yijing was the largest military expedition in recent years, and no one wanted to be second to anyone in the subsequent distribution of rewards.

Yuan Xi was talking to Yuan Shao. Seeing Ju Shou enter, he turned around and bowed, saying: "Greetings, Mr. Gongyu."

Ju Shou nodded and first bowed to Yuan Shao, saying: "Greetings, Lord." Then he said to Yuan Xi: "Greetings, Young Master."

Seeing Ju Shou taking a few steps back and standing to the side, Yuan Xi thought that Ju Shou was already starting to drift apart from Yuan Shao at this time, even during the battle.

Compared to Tian Feng, Ju Shou was actually more awkward. Tian Feng just had a bad temper, while Ju Shou, in the later stages, had almost completely broken with Yuan Shao.

Yuan Xi guessed that this might be related to the fact that Ju Shou had once offered a plan to refuse to hand over Ji Province to Yuan Shao when he was under Han Fu.

Yuan Shao was a vengeful person, and this matter was likely to have made him resentful.

Moreover, from the perspective of later generations, although Ju Shou was proficient in battle formations, the strategies he proposed were rarely adopted.

This was because Ju Shou's strategies were all based on calculating for defeat.

Whether it was his proposal to welcome Emperor Xian of Han, or his opposition to Yuan Shao's three sons dividing the territory, or his strategy of exhausting Cao Cao, or his slow-advance tactic in the Battle of Guandu, all were considering the Yuan family's disadvantageous position.

But at that time, the Yuan family was at its zenith and could seize the world at any time. These ideas of Ju Shou's, which were like finding a way out, were naturally not accepted by Yuan Shao and the strategists and generals who wanted to ascend to high positions early.

Yuan Xi had actually just returned. Last night, the signal fire to lure Gongsun Zan's army out of the city was set by Yuan Xi's soldiers disguised as Black Mountain bandits.

He had actually led his troops to arrive the day before, had his soldiers change into the clothes of the Black Mountain bandits defeated at Beixin City, and had a few hundred cavalry appear first to confuse Gongsun Zan in the city.

Gongsun Zan was indeed tricked into leaving the city, only to be ambushed and flee back to Yijing, leading to the fall of the city gates.

Yuan Shao now had a look of gratification on his face: "Xianyi, you have made a great contribution again. If we take Yijing this time, you will undoubtedly be the first to be credited."

"However, it is truly amazing that you were able to guess the contents of Gongsun Zan's secret code in the secret letter."

Yuan Xi said modestly: "It all depends on the credit of the spies in Father's city. I only guessed it by chance."

What he said was true. He only knew from the history of his previous life that Gongsun Zan was lured out of the city, but he had no clue how Yuan Shao had succeeded in this life.

So, when he caught the spy and searched out the secret letter with the code, he was very troubled.

How could he guess?

Based on his previous life's records, he roughly knew that the letter was to let the Black Mountain bandits ambush and respond in the northern hills, but the key problem was that he didn't know which night it was.

He discussed it with Guo Jia for a long time and concluded that, first of all, it could not be that night because the time was too rushed.

Secondly, it was unlikely to exceed three days, because delays would lead to changes, and the Black Mountain bandits were likely to be surrounded and annihilated by the Yuan army.

In this way, the most likely were the second and third days.

But even with two options, it was difficult to choose. If he made a mistake, he would startle the snake.

In the end, Yuan Xi went to see Yuan Shao and said that he had forced out some of the contents of the secret letter, but he could not determine the time.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Shao called over Xun Chen and asked him to contact the spies in the city.

The next night, a secret letter was sent out from the city, saying that Gongsun Zan was dressing in full armor and seemed to be taking action.

After Yuan Shao and Yuan Xi received the news, they knew that this was very likely to be tonight!

The Yuan army decisively lit the fire and issued the order. Gongsun Zan was indeed fooled and personally led the cavalry out of the city, only to be defeated and flee back to Yijing.

After Yuan Shao and Yuan Xi finished speaking, they turned to Ju Shou and said: "How is the battle in the city?"

Upon hearing this, Ju Shou immediately stepped forward and explained the situation of being blocked by the watchtowers in the city.

Finally, he cupped his hands and said: "In the current situation, if we want a quick victory, we can only adopt the pit-digging fire attack strategy previously proposed by the Young Master."

Yuan Xi's heart stirred slightly when he heard this. When he proposed this strategy that day, Yuan Shao had privately told him afterward that Ju Shou had also made a similar suggestion.

Ju Shou was now pushing all the credit to himself, was it because he didn't want to compete for credit with himself, or was he disheartened with Yuan Shao?

Thinking that Yuan Shao liked to eliminate the powerful and unmanageable meritorious officials when he was in a dominant position, Yuan Xi guessed that Ju Shou's good days were coming to an end.

Yuan Shao said at this time: "In that case, follow the previous plan and let all the civilians enter the city and dig the city quickly."

"Within three days, we must break through all the watchtowers!"

Yuan Shao was also a little anxious at this time, because in addition to Yuan Xi returning earlier than expected, changes had occurred on the other two routes.

Yuan Tan's route blocked Zhang Yan's most elite central route, firmly holding the main road, but the fighting was quite hard.

And Yuan Shang's route at Ye City was even more miserable. The Black Mountain bandits plundered around Ye City, and Yuan Shang sent Gao Lan out of the city to intercept them, but with little effect.

Now both sides were waiting for Yuan Shao's army to return for reinforcements. Thinking of this, Yuan Shao was somewhat fortunate that Yuan Xi, who was the least favored beforehand, was the first to return and had even changed the battle situation!

Gongsun Zan stood on the watchtower, watching the soldiers and civilians of Yuan Shao's army, under the cover of battering rams, rush into the city and push flat carts to the edge of the mounds below the watchtowers.

Then these people, like digging city walls, began to dig the soil.

Tian Kai said: "They are trying to dig down the watchtowers!"

After hearing this, a subordinate general said: "If that is the case, wouldn't they also be crushed to death?"

"I don't believe they dare to have the courage to die. Moreover, digging the foundation of the watchtower is not that easy. There are deep piles underneath."

After hearing this, everyone nodded. Suddenly, someone discovered that black smoke was beginning to rise from the bottom of a tall watchtower.