Chapter 22: The Battle is About to Begin

  (Mysteriously clicked and deducted, the chapter content uploaded and the protagonist's name automatically changed to Yang Xi, can Starting Point not be so disappointing?)

  Yang Kai led Yang Dong and Yang Zheng's nearly hundred personal soldiers to the top of the east gate when the sky was already beginning to show a glimmer of dawn. In the distance, warning wolf smoke rose into the sky, and several piles of fire indicating specific meanings were burning fiercely in the far distance.

  The soaring wolf smoke silently conveyed urgent information to people, that is, the military situation was critical and a major war could break out at any time.

  After seeing the warning wolf smoke, Yang Hui felt both relieved and deeply moved.

  Fortunately, he persuaded his father Yang Guozhong and Emperor Li Longji with an unexpectedly firm and arrogant attitude, allowing him to lead the army to rescue. After receiving the order, he rushed to Tongguan at the fastest speed and finally arrived at Tongguan before the rebels attacked the city. He decisively handled Huo Biren's betrayal of holding Geshu Han hostage and then made a calm deployment.

  If such drastic and swift measures had not been taken, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

  It was astonishing that the rebel army attacked at such a rapid pace, without even stopping for the night, and arrived near Tongguan before dawn, far exceeding his expected speed. He knew that if it weren't for the roadblocks set up by his generals along the way after Geshu Han's defeat, the rebels might have already reached the city of Tongguan, and a fierce battle would have erupted!

  As he rushed up to the city gate and loudly ordered his men to prepare for battle, he felt a little nervous.

  Although he had commanded many exercises or actual combat before crossing, at that time the troops he led were not many, with a maximum of only over a hundred people, and they were mainly special operations. The scale and way of war were completely different from now. He didn't know if he could organize a good cold weapon war. He also felt again that it would be great to have those familiar weapons in his hands, such as sniper rifles, hand grenades, and rocket launchers. With these weapons, the leader of the rebels would be defeated, and the rebels would definitely surrender without a fight. The pressure on Tongguan would be greatly reduced, or even completely eliminated.

  But now they can only rely on the bows, arrows and large knives, long spears and other weapons in the hands of the soldiers to form a phalanx against the enemy, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers under their command is completely unable to match that of the rebel army. They have just suffered a great defeat, morale is low, and the only advantage is to defend the Tongguan Pass, which is strategically located and has a magnificent city wall, making the rebel army pay a considerable price for attacking the city.

  At this time, Yang Hui really believed in fate. He felt that since heaven had let him travel through time to the Tang Dynasty at this moment, he must have been entrusted with a special mission, and as long as he utilized the timing and geographical advantages, he could complete this mission. He was a standard special forces soldier, having gone through cruel training and countless real combat opportunities, even facing many threats of death, so he wasn't afraid of war at all.

  He can command well in this battle, turn the tide and hold Tongguan Pass!

  In an instant, Yang Hui's heart was filled with confidence, and his orders were given with a strong voice.

  Ge Shuhan himself requested to go to the south gate to command in person. Yang Kai didn't dare to compete with him, and finally chose to sit at the east gate and defend.

  Dongmen Shoujiang was biased towards his own father, Li Chengguang, and also had a good impression of Gao Shi, who had interacted with him before. Yang Hui felt that this was a good arrangement made by Ge Shuhan for him. The prestige of this new Tongguan Bingshima may be further established at the East Gate of Tongguan, and his abilities will also be fully demonstrated at the East Gate of Tongguan.

  The East Gate is the most prominent place in Tongguan City. If nothing unexpected happens, the East Gate will be the first target of the rebel army's attack. However, the terrain outside the East Gate is treacherous and not suitable for a large number of troops to launch an attack. Even if tens of thousands of rebels come, only a few thousand can deploy outside the East Gate. The rebel army's frontal assault can invest as many troops as there are defenders on the city wall, at most the rebels will rotate shifts in attacking the city, wave after wave!

  Of course, this is also the most frightening. The defenders inside Tongguan City are not many and cannot adopt the same chariot tactics as the rebels unless the follow-up troops arrive. If the follow-up reinforcements cannot arrive within a certain period of time, and the rebels continue to attack the city without regard for casualties, one wave after another, non-stop, no matter how high the morale of the defending soldiers is, their physical strength will not be able to hold on, and the final result will be defeat and the fall of the city.

  At this point, Yang Jie once again severely scolded his father's incompetence. If he had defended Tongguan City with 200,000 troops, even if the rebels gathered a million soldiers to attack the city, they would not have been able to take Tongguan.

  Two hundred thousand troops, can be rotated to defend against the rebels' attack on each city gate and city head, and can also occupy those dangerous terrain outside Tongguan City, further suppressing the rebels' attacks.

  Before Geshu Han's defeat, although the rebel army under An Qingxu, son of An Lushan, had attacked Tongguan City, they did not reach Yang Guozhong's current location at Tongguan City. They were stopped at Hantongguan City and could not advance further. At that time, there were more than 15,000 defenders in Hantongguan City, led by Pang Zhong. Under Pang Zhong's command, the 15,000-strong army resisted countless rebel attacks, forcing An Qingxu to retreat tens of miles and abandon his offensive strategy, opting instead for a standoff while preparing alternative plans.

  Detour attack, from the south and north two directions around Tongguan City to attack Chang'an, is the most possible approach, but An Qingxu tried it later and finally gave up in despair. In the summer, the Yellow River and Weihe River are extremely urgent, and it is impossible to set up a pontoon bridge under the situation of waves crashing against the sky. The pontoon bridge cannot be set up, and the army cannot cross the Yellow River and Weihe River, so the idea of detouring from the north side to attack is not feasible.

  But attacking from the south in several directions was also ineffective, as the road in that direction was extremely difficult to walk on. Tens of thousands of people and horses wanted to advance quickly, but it was a pipe dream; even several thousand people and horses could only advance with difficulty. The Tang army officers and men, who were defending the strategic terrain, stubbornly blocked the vanguard of the rebel troops in front of Tongguan Pass. To take Chang'an, at least under current circumstances, it could only be achieved after capturing Tongguan Pass; An Qingxu could only adopt the strategy of luring the enemy with a weak army, and unexpectedly, the government army fell for it!

  Lingbao was a great victory for An Qingxu, who annihilated all 200,000 troops that had marched out of Tong Pass.

  Yang Kai was not fully informed of An Qingxu's current arrangements, but from the intelligence he could gather now, he roughly understood the situation. He also knew that An Qingxu's attack on Tongguan this time was a must-win. With the strength of his current army of over 10,000 soldiers, he himself did not know whether he could hold Tongguan and guard the gate of Chang'an.

  If there were more troops on hand, then putting more troops into the city of Hantang would definitely be able to slow down the rebel army's attack speed and drag them to death. Even if Hantang City was lost in the end, it would have this effect.

  In terms of danger, the current Tongguan City is more severe than the Han Dynasty's Tongguan City. This was also the main reason why Geshu Han abandoned the Han Dynasty's Tongguan City and only defended the current Tongguan City after his defeat and retreat.

  With insufficient troops, in a situation where they were struggling to cope, all forces had to be placed in the most critical areas for defense. Without the support of Yang Hui's 3,000 new recruits, it would have been impossible to divide the troops and defend the city of Hantonguan. The city of Hantonguan can now dispatch 800 cavalry led by Pang Zhong, and at most integrate other defeated retreating troops, totaling only 2,000 people. It is unrealistic to expect these 2,000 people to completely stop the rebel army in front of the city of Hantonguan, unless a miracle occurs. The role of these 2,000 troops is roughly equivalent to the "soldier" in "losing soldiers to protect the chariot", aiming to confuse the rebel army, slow down their attack speed, boost our military morale, until the arrival of subsequent reinforcements. Yang Hui believes that the imperial court will not fail to send subsequent reinforcements, with his father, known as a treacherous minister, there, the imperial court will certainly dispatch subsequent reinforcements at the fastest speed.

  Yang Jie has already sent signals to Chang'an twice, and also informed Yang Guozhong of the situation in Tongguan and the urgent need for follow-up reinforcements through the post station's fast horse. If Yang Guozhong is still hesitating now, he deserves to have his family exterminated.

  When Yang Jie rushed up to the city gate, the soldiers on the Tongguan City wall were busy preparing under the command of Li Chengguang and Gao Shi.

  It can be said that Tongguan City has always been highly valued as a key location for defending the capital, and the preparations made after the rebellion began were also aimed at long-term defense. The city's military equipment and supplies are extremely rich, according to Ge Shuhan's previous statement, if one person uses 20 arrows per day, the arrows in Tongguan City can be used by 200,000 people for a month, which is over 10 million arrows.

  In addition, the city head of Tongguan is also equipped with large-scale bed crossbows, which are one of the most powerful and longest-range weapons in the cold weapon era.

  There is no need to worry about food supplies, 200,000 people and horses can be fully supplied, let alone the current more than 10,000 people and horses.

  The military supplies are sufficient, and Yang Hui's worries in his heart have decreased a bit. If the subsequent reinforcements can arrive quickly, defending Tongguan City is not a problem.

  Although there were many thoughts in his mind, the time spent was very short. When Yang Hui walked up to the city head and arrived in front of Li Chengguang and Gao Shi, who were busy directing soldiers to set up defenses, he had already calmed down.

  "I will see Yang Bing again!"

  Seeing Yang Jie walking towards them with big strides, Li Chengguang and Gao Shi were taken aback for a moment before hastily welcoming him.

  Yang Hui slightly returned their courtesy and didn't say anything, instead walking by himself to the edge of the city wall.

  As he walked to the city wall, Yang Hui saw that in the southeast direction of the city, a raging fire had broken out, illuminating the night sky which had just begun to lighten.

  It was clear that it was Geshu Han's order to burn the bodies of the soldiers in the forbidden ditch, Yang Hui let out a long sigh of relief again, and then turned to face Li Chengguang and Gao Shi, who were nervous in their hearts. He said very seriously: "General Li, General Gao, the rebels are about to arrive and will soon attack the city. I hope that when the rebels attack the city, you two can command the soldiers with all your might to resist them, and not let a single rebel soldier climb onto the head of Tongguan City. In times of crisis, I will go up to the city head with you to kill the enemy! I have already sworn to His Majesty: as long as the city is intact, I am alive; if the city is broken, I will die!"