Chapter 67: East Gate Without Worries

  Under the dense arrow attack of the soldiers on the city wall, the rebels attacking the south gate suffered heavy casualties. The 1,500 people Li Qian brought to the outside of the south gate had mostly fallen in the Forbidden Ditch, and a few were shot dead by the Tang army soldiers on the city wall and the top of Tongguan City when they climbed to the west bank of the Forbidden Ditch. The bodies of the rebels who were shot all had multiple arrows stuck in them, with many having over ten arrows, becoming "hedgehogs".

  Those who were severely wounded and fell into the trench would no longer move, while those who were lightly wounded either looked for a place to hide or continued to climb westward with the few uninjured soldiers and the follow-up charging horses. However, the efforts made by these stubborn soldiers did not receive the expected return, and death was still waiting for them in front of them. They, like their comrades who had fallen before, added height to the pile of corpses in the trench.

  The dense arrows inflicted heavy casualties on the rebel army, and many rebels were shot dead or wounded. However, Geshu Han, Wang Silie and other generals on the south gate tower did not show any joy. This was just the beginning, and the subsequent battles would be even more brutal, with more tests ahead.

  Soon, the gruesome scene of the corpses being burned in the trench was barely visible, as it was already covered with the bodies of the rebels or the wounded, equally gruesome but identical to the previous situation. There were also continuous waves of rebel troops rushing down from the east side of the trench, trampling on their companions' corpses, charging westward along the trench, using every means to climb up the high trench walls, as if they didn't care about death at all.

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  Yang Kai, who was directing the battle from the top of the East Gate City Tower, not only paid attention to the situation at the East Gate but also frequently turned his head to pay attention to the fighting situation in the direction of the South Gate. Of course, he found that the battle outside the South Gate was much more intense than that outside the East Gate.

  Although there was no forbidden moat or natural barrier outside the east gate, the terrain was relatively narrow and winding, making it difficult for the rebel army to deploy a larger-scale attack formation. The dense arrows on the city wall had a great killing effect on the attacking rebels, and even if the rebels charged with shields, they were ineffective. There were always high-speed flying arrows that could cause harm to the rebels, no matter how tightly the shields were held, a few soldiers would be injured, causing gaps in the shield formation.

  The appearance of gaps in the shield wall allowed arrows shot from above to have a greater killing effect, further weakening the defensive effectiveness of the rebel army's shields. More and more soldiers were injured or killed by arrows. Moreover, rebels who rushed to the foot of the city wall could not hold up their shields to block arrows while setting up ladders to climb the wall, so they suffered even heavier casualties when setting up ladders and preparing to climb. The continuous impact did not allow many soldiers to rush to the foot of the city wall, and the number of ladders that could be set up was limited, and they were quickly pushed down by the Tang army soldiers on the city wall.

  A cloud ladder is not something that can be easily set up to climb a city wall, there must be several soldiers supporting it from below, otherwise it will be pushed down with just one push. However, the number of soldiers who can rush to the bottom of the city wall is really small, and even setting up more cloud ladders is impossible, let alone having soldiers to press and support them.

  The rebels who started rushing towards the east gate continued, with at least five or six thousand soldiers charging in the direction of the east gate, but only a few hundred soldiers were able to rush under the city wall. The others were either injured or killed, or blocked by the wounded and dead, unable to advance.

  These hundreds of people, while avoiding the arrows and stones from the city head, also had to think of ways to set up ladders. However, the power of these hundreds of people was too weak, the arrows on the city head were very dense, and the wooden logs and rolling stones thrown down were many, which they could not resist. These hundreds of soldiers eventually became corpses lying horizontally under the city gate of Sui Tong Pass, trampled by their companions who came to charge afterwards, making it extremely difficult to set up ladders to climb the city wall.

  The rebel soldiers who were shot dead or injured had seriously hindered the attack of the subsequent troops. After all, the roads leading to the East Gate were all stairs, and the dead and wounded were lying horizontally and vertically, which would definitely obstruct the subsequent charging horses. Commander Cheng Wei had no choice but to order the subsequent soldiers to clear the dead and wounded, not allowing the charging road to be blocked. However, there were too many dead and injured rebels, and it was impossible to clean them up all at once. The arrows of the Tang army on the city wall continued to shoot intensively, and a large number of soldiers who followed the charge were still shot down, and only a few could rush to the foot of the city wall.

  A large number of soldiers were shot dead or injured, blocking the advancing road, making it difficult for subsequent soldiers to rush up. The attack in the direction of the east gate weakened slowly after a period of time. The rebel soldiers who rushed to the outside of the east gate continued to decrease, and Yang Hui naturally saw it with his own eyes. He was no longer worried that the east gate would be captured by the rebels soon!

  Due to the obstruction of a large number of wounded rebel soldiers, the subsequent charges by the rebels were not smooth, and the battle in the east gate direction was slower than at the beginning. This was unexpected for Yang Hui, and also made Cui Qianyou, who was observing the progress of the war from a distant mountain top, feel anxious.

  Seeing the people and horses attacking in the direction of Dongmen suffered a devastating blow, a large number of dead and wounded soldiers blocked the road, unable to speed up the attack. Cui Qianyou knew that today's plan to take down Tongguan City could not be expected to break through from the east gate.

  This made him feel very downhearted and secretly gave rise to pessimistic thoughts.

  He knew that, with a complete advantage in his own military strength, the best way to attack the city was to launch a large-scale and comprehensive attack, with multiple points of attack, each concentrating a large number of soldiers to launch a fierce attack, using the advantage of military strength to put maximum pressure on the defenders on the city wall. This would make the defenders unable to cope, suffering heavy casualties. Only then could more soldiers rush to the top of the city wall and engage in close combat with the defenders, using the advantage of military strength to occupy the city wall and ultimately capture the city. However, now the attack surface cannot be opened up, only the south gate direction can be launched on a large scale, the north gate direction cannot even arrange the attacking force, and the east gate direction does not seem suitable for large-scale attacks either.

  Choi Gan-yo secretly sighed, and could only increase the intensity of the attack in the direction of the south gate, regardless of the loss of soldiers, even using corpses to fill up the forbidden ditch thoroughly, so that more soldiers would have the opportunity to climb the city.

  As soon as he thought of filling up the dry ditch, Cui Qianyou's heart couldn't help but skip a beat.

  Yes, if there was no moat, the south gate direction could concentrate more troops to attack the city. The attacking soldiers would not need to cross the treacherous moat and could directly set up ladders to climb the city walls. Moreover, they could launch a counterattack with arrows from the position of the moat against the defending army inside the city, rather than being passively beaten like now.

  In an instant, he was deeply moved, and after looking at the attack situation in various directions, he quickly changed his mind and immediately issued new orders to concentrate all his forces on attacking the south gate, while continuing to attack the east gate but reducing the deployment of troops.

  At the same time, he ordered a group of soldiers to attack in the direction of Tongguan North Gate, tying up the two gates of the Tang army.