Chapter Thirty: Patroling the City

  The recommended ticket actually fell out of the category ranking list, crazy asking for recommended tickets!

  After the soldier ran off, Yang Hui ordered the gate guards to temporarily relax and rest. Those who could withdraw did so to a cooler place below the city wall, waiting for enemy movements before returning to their posts on the city walls. At noon, under the scorching sun, people standing on the city walls for an extended period would be roasted dry!

  He also sent people to Chang'an at the same time to send a message for help, and reported all that had happened this morning to Chang'an.

  Yang Hui did not know whether Chen Xuanli's subsequent relief army had been formed or set out, and he hoped that under the urging of his powerful father, the prime minister, Chen Xuanli would have already led the army on an expedition.

  Whether Chen Xuanli led his troops to Tongguan or not, Yang Gui would repeatedly send people to urge the reinforcements to arrive quickly. Of course, he also hoped that more troops would arrive at Tongguan. Many hands make light work, this sentence is definitely suitable for the current situation, and there are too few troops under his command.

  The rebel forces in the distance had slowly retreated, and the mountain fire was still burning without any signs of extinguishing soon. Yang Hui ordered again to inform Geshu Han that he would accompany him on a tour of the city walls to boost morale.

  Yang Gui knew that at this time, his orders had some weight in Tongguan City. This was judged from the reaction of the gatekeepers of each city gate in the morning. During Li Fude's ambush against the rebels, Yang Gui had ordered the transmission to the gatekeepers and also sent a message to Geshu Han. From the feedback information of the gatekeepers and their subsequent multiple requests for instructions, Yang Gui was able to judge that he had established initial prestige among the generals. The various generals inside Tongguan City took him seriously and treated him as a commander. Although all this might be due to Geshu Han's submission and support, Yang Gui also believed that it would not have been possible with only Geshu Han's support.

  And what he needs to do is to further assert his authority.

  Li Fuguo was one of his generals, and the merits Li Fuguo established also belonged to him. The ambush outside the city was carried out only after he persuaded Geshu Han. The results were quite good, enough to surprise other generals who had just fled back, including Geshu Han.

  Along with Geshu Han and other generals, inspecting the city walls can boost morale and re-establish his own prestige.

  He ordered all the generals to return to Geshu Han's headquarters first, and then followed him and Geshu Han to inspect the city together.

  Just as Yang Guozhong's order was being transmitted, he himself led Li Chengguang and Gao Shi down from the city tower, preparing to head towards the East Gate guarded by Ge Shuhan. When they were about to patrol the city together with this old general, Liu Guangting rushed over with several personal soldiers to report the situation to him.

  After listening to Liu Guangting's report, Yang Hui's resentment towards this subordinate general decreased a bit.

  Liu Guangting gathered not many defeated soldiers, only over a thousand people. These were mostly soldiers who escaped back to Tongguan and found the situation was not right, continuing to flee in the direction of Chang'an. There were also some from other directions, such as soldiers who crossed the Yellow River, and those who climbed over steep mountain peaks around Tongguan City. Many times, human potential is limitless, just like when escaping with one's life, those seemingly impossible-to-climb mountains also had defeated soldiers daring to climb and successfully crossing over, leaving people in awe that under specific circumstances, human potential is infinite, but such defeated soldiers were relatively few.

  Most of the people fleeing through the official road towards Chang'an are the common people inside Tongguan City!

  Although there were only over a thousand defeated soldiers, most of them were willing to return to Tongguan City to participate in the battle. Some who refused to return were killed by Liu Guangting, and some tried to escape and did not want to fight with the rebels again.

  In Liu Guangyi's own words, it was a very difficult task to gather these defeated soldiers and bring them back under control to Tongguan.

  Those who have the opportunity to escape and return are all in good physical condition, while those with poor physical condition do not even have the chance to become fugitive soldiers. If these fugitive soldiers can be reorganized and used well, they will definitely play a huge role in defending the city. More than 1,000 soldiers, if organized properly, can also form a decent militia.

  The current Yang Kai needs nothing more than a supplement of soldiers, and having an extra hundred men would be a good thing too!

  Every little bit counts!

  Yang Jie's greatest hope was the arrival of Chen Xuanli's relief army, but he also knew that it was almost impossible for Chen Xuanli to arrive at Tongguan today. It would be good enough if they could arrive under the city walls last night.

  The terrain of Tongguan City is treacherous, so the number of defeated soldiers who escaped back was not large. A large number of defeated soldiers were still scattered on the east side of Tongguan City. Of course, most of the 200,000 troops were either killed in battle or burned to death, or captured by the rebel army. The number of people who could become defeated soldiers would not be many.

  After instructing Liu Guangting for a few sentences, Yang Gui also immediately ordered Liu Guangting to incorporate these more than 1,000 defeated soldiers into the garrison troops at the East Gate. Liu Guangting also defended at the East Gate and listened to his command. Liu Guangting obeyed the order and went, and Yang Gui continued his own city defense preparations.

  When Yang Guozhong led Li Chenggui and Gao Shi, two generals, and the troops led by Yang Zheng and Yang Dong back to Geshu Han's headquarters, they saw that Wang Silie had arrived there first. This general, who was said to be extremely brave and good at fighting, no longer showed the same hostility towards Yang Guozhong as he did when they first met.

  After Yang Guifei arrived at Tongguan, from his performance and the arrangements he made, Wang Shilie felt that Yang Guozhong's young son was not an ordinary person. At such a young age, he could be so calm and composed, with a momentum that was not inferior to Geshu Han, a veteran general who had experienced many life-and-death battles. He was even more formidable than those who had gone through numerous battles, and the fierce killing aura in his eyes when he was angry was quite intimidating, which made Wang Shilie have some reservations.

  Under complicated emotions, when seeing Yang Hui approaching with big strides, I actually didn't know whether to go forward and pay respects or not.

  Yang Kai naturally saw the complex expression on Wang Silie's face and didn't pay much attention to it. He stepped forward and greeted, "General Wang, there has been a change in the enemy situation. I plan to gather all the generals to patrol the city together, to boost morale and discuss the next deployment. I hope you will speak freely and offer some good suggestions!"

  Wang Silie had no choice but to step forward and make a bow, saying: "Please rest assured, Yang Bingmashi. When the rebel army comes to attack, I will definitely fight to the death to defend the city. As long as I still have breath in me, I will never let a single rebel soldier climb up onto the city wall!"

  Although Wang Silie did not answer the question, Yang Hui understood several layers of meaning from his words. That is, this Gesu Han's trusted general would listen to his command and would fully defend against the rebel army's attack when the rebels attacked the city.

  Wang Silie has made such a statement, how can Yang Hui still be dissatisfied?

  At this time, a voice came from behind, "Yang Bingma Shi, I really didn't expect that your fake troops would have such an effect, not only heavily damaging the rebel army's vanguard, but also successfully stopping the rebel army's offensive! Now we also have a rare opportunity to rest and regroup!"

  The one who spoke was indeed Geshu Han, and Yang Jie also hurried forward, respectfully saluting Geshu Han: "General Geshu, I know that the rebel army will not give up attacking the city just yet. As long as the fire is extinguished, they will immediately attack again, and a decisive battle will follow! After the initial victory, the morale of the soldiers has been boosted to some extent, but I think that in order to further boost their morale, we generals must set an example with our confidence to inspire them. Therefore, I thought of joining General Geshu to lead the troops on a tour of the city walls to encourage the soldiers' morale and make them firmly believe in victory! Since the enemy situation has changed somewhat, I would like to discuss with General Geshu and the other generals during the tour whether we should adjust our defense strategy according to the current situation!" Yang Jie's words were very resolute.