Chapter Forty-Four: The Real Battlefield

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  Yang Kai stood on the city wall of Suizhou Pass, his eyes almost motionless as he watched the battle in the direction of Hantouguan City.

  The terrain of Sui Tongguan City is higher than that of Han Tongguan City, standing on the gate tower of Sui Tongguan City to overlook, except for the situation under the city in the southeast direction of Han Tongguan, which is not very clear, other places can be said to be at a glance.

  Yang Hui, standing on the city gate tower to watch the battle, could basically see the situation of the rebel army's impact and the counterattack of the Tang army on the city head.

  If Li Fude's previous ambushes had already given Yang Hui a preliminary understanding of the tactics of the Cold Arms era, then the rebels' ferocious attack on the city without regard for consequences further revealed to him the cruelty of war in the Cold Arms era.

  Yang did not truly experience the large-scale warfare of the hot weapon era, and the actual combat he experienced was only small-scale special operations, with personnel losses counted in single digits or at most in tens. The cruelty of war was felt from those documentaries or movies, plus his own experiences of several real battles, having personally killed several enemies, and being able to anticipate the horrors of war.

  But everything feels less real than it does now.

  A large number of rebel soldiers, holding shields and braving the continuous hail of arrows from the city walls, charged forward desperately. Countless people were shot down by arrows, either wounded or killed. The wounded fell to the ground, groaning in pain, but no one came to rescue them. The bodies of the dead piled up slowly at the foot of the city wall. In less than half a day, hundreds of corpses had accumulated at the foot of Tongguan City. Even in the good light, he could vaguely see the tragic state of the dead. This was different from what he saw when Li Fude led his army to ambush this morning.

  Yang Kai, who had experienced extremely rigorous training in the special forces and had even killed people, seen enemies and comrades die before his eyes, was still shaken by the simplicity of the slaughter at the Han Tong Pass.

  But his ups and downs were only in his heart, his face was calm and composed, standing on the city gate tower watching the battle unfold.

  But those who stood beside him were different.

  Li Chengguang and Gao Shi are not by his side now, these two generals have gone to the city head to arrange command, standing beside Yang Hui is only his family general, Yang Dong and Yang Zheng and some others, responsible for Yang Hui's safety guard.

  Among them, Yang Dong had experienced more scenes and had been to the battlefield. He had seen such scenes several times and had some tolerance for the bloodiness of killing. But the young ones, like Yang Zheng and a few others who were similar in age to Yang Hui, were just street thugs who used to bully the weak and take advantage of the innocent. They had never seen such cruel and bloody scenes before, and some people were so scared that their legs trembled and their faces turned pale.

  The family members were all amazed at how calm Yang Hui was, their young master was really surprising!

  As for the people around him, Yang Kai didn't find it strange that they would behave like this. His attention was not focused on these people at all, and his entire focus was on the increasingly intense battle for the Han Tinguan city. He carefully observed the characteristics of both sides' offense and defense, whether it was the rebel army's attack method or their own military defense against the enemy.

  The battle for Hantangguan Castle has been ongoing with no signs of stopping.

  The rebels were initially blocked in the first wave of attacks, suffered heavy casualties, and did not retreat or give up. The subsequent attacks came one after another. Fortunately, there was not much flat land outside the east and south gates of Tongguan City, so the rebels could not deploy more troops. Each direction was attacked by hundreds of people at a time, and more troops were squeezed into the high and low places outside the city gate.

  The rebel army's attack on this scale, the defenders on the city wall were not under too much pressure, and Yang Hui was relieved. However, after watching for a while, he saw that the rebels' continuous attacks had suffered heavy casualties, but they still did not give up. He also understood the rebels' tactics, which was to use a tactic similar to a war of attrition, exhausting the defenders, waiting for the defending generals to exhaust their physical strength before concentrating their forces to attack the city.

  No matter how strong a person is, their physical strength always has a limit. If similar actions are repeated continuously, they will soon become exhausted and unable to exert any more force. Just like the Tang army on the city wall now, they have been shooting arrows continuously, consuming a lot of energy, and eventually, they will be too tired to draw their bows. When the soldiers on the city wall can no longer draw their bows, it is the time for the rebel army to launch a counterattack.

  If the defenders on the city wall show signs of fatigue, the number of rebel troops attacking the city will definitely increase, and the waves of attacks will be more frequent.

  Thinking of this, Yang Jie let out a bitter cry. He knew that the rebel army's continuous attacks would continue, possibly until nightfall when it was no longer suitable for an attack, or until the bodies piled up outside the city and they couldn't charge forward anymore before stopping.

  But now there is still more than an hour before nightfall, and the corpses of the rebels at the foot of the city wall have not yet accumulated to the point where the rebels are completely unable to launch a charge.

  Yang Kai now only hopes that the defenders on the city wall can maintain their physical strength and continue to hold out in the next battle. He also immediately ordered people to pass on the order, asking Pang Zhong and Li Fude to rotate the limited hundreds of mobile troops on the city wall, allowing soldiers to have a chance to rest and recover their strength.

  Yang Kai simultaneously conveyed to them the order that no matter what great cost they would have to hold on until nightfall.

  Wait until nightfall, then set up a decoy formation to prevent the rebels from daring to attack at night, while the defending soldiers take advantage of the opportunity to retreat back to the Suizhou Pass.

  In the previous deployment, the already very dilapidated Hantangguan City was not a must-hold fortress, but only as a stronghold to slow down the rebel army's attack speed, and it would be enough to delay the rebel army for half a day or one day. The real battlefield is in the current Suotangguan City where he is standing now.

  Currently, there are only about 10,000 soldiers on the head of Suizhou Pass, and many of them are wounded or in poor mental state, with weak combat effectiveness. Two hours ago, more than 1,000 soldiers were dispatched to defend the twelve passes of Hantong Pass, and the deployment of troops on the city wall was already very tense, making it impossible to send reinforcements to Hantong Pass again. Yang Gui could not tolerate the consumption of the two thousand plus soldiers on the head of Hantong Pass, he must ensure that the two thousand soldiers on the head of Hantong Pass can return safely and replenish the strength on the head of Suizhou Pass.

  The strategic importance of Hantong Pass is much smaller than that of Tongguan Pass. Any general would concentrate all his forces to defend Tongguan Pass, just like Geshu Han did when he abandoned Hantong Pass knowing his insufficient troops. Yang Hui also understood the fact that Tongguan Pass was more difficult to attack, so he had to concentrate all his strength to defend it, and Li Fude and Peng Zhong's 2,000 men must be allowed to return at all costs.

  But how to get them back is extremely technically demanding... If the rebels are chasing after them, it's very difficult to get them into the city...