Chapter Eighty-Three Confidence

  "What?" Tian Gan Zhen was shocked, looking at An Qingxu in disbelief. He couldn't have thought that An Qingxu would give the order to suspend the attack just as the army was about to launch an offensive against Tongguan City. He almost thought he had misheard, that his ears were playing tricks on him!

  The other generals were also shocked, and they all stared at An Qingxu's face in astonishment, still with a hint of anger but gradually calming down, hoping to hear his explanation.

  An Qingxu naturally saw the reactions of all the generals, he didn't have any surprises, sat down on the main seat, slowly let out a breath and said with a hint of frustration: "Everyone, I'm sure you all know that last night's attack was met with fierce counterattacks from the Tang army as soon as it began. This already shows that the Tang army had reinforcements arriving yesterday afternoon. From the density of each round of arrow shots, there are at least 20,000 soldiers inside the city. According to reports from our scouts near the city wall, there were big movements in Tongguan City at dawn. Judging from the arrogant tone of this Yang Gui, a Tang army general, there must be large-scale reinforcements arriving, or he wouldn't dare speak like that!"

  "In the past two days, the Tang army was struggling to hold on, but after several batches of reinforcements arrived, the situation changed. The Tang army now has the ability to counterattack when our great army attacks, and they can even spare troops to send a force out of the city to harass us while we are concentrated on attacking the city. If our army is not fully prepared and does not have sufficient defenses, it is possible that the Tang army will succeed in one blow. Therefore, we should temporarily suspend our attack and reconsider, and only after careful planning can we launch another attack. The influence of the defeat at Lingbao has basically been eliminated from the Tang army, and Tongguan City is destined to be extremely difficult to attack. If we continue to attack in the same way as the past two days, it will definitely not work!" An Qingxu said, getting up and pacing back and forth before continuing: "Yesterday's strategy is no longer effective; relying solely on transporting mud and rocks to fill the moat is like trying to climb to heaven!"

  "The prince is right!" An Qingxu's trusted general Li Guiren stood up immediately after An Qingxu finished speaking and looked at the other generals, saying: "Your Highness, I think we should order our soldiers to cut down more trees and bamboo, use them to make bamboo or wooden rafts to pave the moat, I believe that as long as we cut down enough trees and bamboo, we can quickly turn the moat into a thoroughfare!"

  Li Guiren had actually suggested this to An Qingxu earlier, asking Cui Gan'yu to produce a sufficient number of bamboo rafts or wooden rafts and throw them into the moat, which could quickly fill up the moat and facilitate their own troops to cross the moat and attack the city.

  But because previously Cui Jianyu reported that a large number of corpses were piled up in the moat, and it was possible to cross the moat by stepping on the corpses, rushing to make a large number of bamboo rafts and wooden rafts would waste time and miss the best attack opportunity. In the end, An Qingxu also listened to Cui Jianyu's suggestion and ordered Cui Jianyu's vanguard to attack the city immediately, but the attack did not achieve any results, and Li Guiren also proposed this motion again after An Qingxu ordered a temporary halt to the attack.

  "General Li's words are very reasonable!" As soon as Li Guiren finished speaking, Tian Qianzhen immediately stood up to support him. "The woods near Tongguan are lush and dense, making it convenient to produce a large number of wooden rafts and bamboo rafts. It only takes half a day to complete the production of all the necessary bamboo and wood rafts. After filling in the moat with bamboo and wood rafts, the moat will become a thoroughfare. Then, concentrating all the troops to attack in shifts, we can definitely break through Tongguan City!"

  An Shu-zhong also stood up immediately and expressed his support for Li Kui-ren's proposal.

  To be honest, many people didn't think of cutting bamboo and wood to make a bamboo raft, using the raft to fill in the trench. They thought of filling it with mud and stones, thinking that they could rely on the massive force of tens of thousands of soldiers to permanently fill in the trench.

  The moat was filled up, and the tens of thousands of troops were gathered to launch a tidal wave-like offensive against the city wall in the south gate direction, making a concerted effort to directly attack the Tongguan City head.

  But yesterday's night attack proved that this method was not very feasible, after all, each soldier could only carry a small amount of mud and stones, and had to suffer the dense arrow attacks of the Tang army.

  But bamboo and wooden planks are different, they have a larger volume, during transportation, they can also be used as shields, after throwing them down, even if there is a gap in the middle, it may not affect the passage, the required quantity is much less, several hundred bamboo and wooden planks can basically set up a passage. Anyone who thinks of this will surely agree with this proposal.

  No one stood up in opposition, and An Qingxu seemed to have been encouraged, as if victory was within sight. Without hesitation, he immediately issued the order for the soldiers to hurry up and cut down trees and bamboo, making over a thousand bamboo and wooden rafts, which had to be completed before noon.

  Under An Qingxu's command, all the generals immediately went to make arrangements.

  At one time, soldiers cutting down trees and bamboo were everywhere near Tongguan, and the vegetation on the east side of Huashan near Tongguan was severely damaged.

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  "General Yang, you're really amazing! After sending a few letters into the rebel army's camp, they actually stopped attacking!" As the sun rose high in the sky, but still didn't see the rebels starting to attack the city, instead, their lined-up soldiers even retreated a certain distance. Wang Silie couldn't help but express his astonishment, he really wanted to know what Yang Hui had said in the letters, but it wasn't good to ask directly, so he could only subtly inquire.

  "This letter of mine was just a temporary measure, hoping that An Qingxu would see the letter and temporarily dispel his idea of attacking the city. It seems to have worked! Yang Hui turned around and looked at Wang Silie's face with some surprise, then looked at other similar expressions on the faces of the generals, and smiled: "But An Qingxu is unlikely to give up now, the tens of thousands of troops under his command are not just for show, these are all good warriors from the border armies, they will definitely think of a way to continue attacking the city!"

  Pang Zhong, on the other side, couldn't help but express his doubts: "But General, the Forbidden Moat is already restored, and the rebels' plan to fill it with earth last night was abandoned. It's hard for them to cross the Forbidden Moat. Why didn't An Qingxu attack when our army was weak? What will he do after my reinforcements arrive?"

  Yang Hui gazed out at the rebel army's formation in the distance, sighed and said: "The rebels know that Jingou is extremely difficult to cross, so they tried to fill it with mud last night during the attack, but gave up after being hit by our dense arrows. This move also shows that the rebels want to flatten Jingou before attacking again! The rebels will not give up this idea and will not retreat from Tongguan!"

  "Well, Marshal, what method do you think the rebels will use to attack?" Tian Liangqiu, the original vanguard army's military advisor, couldn't help but ask.

  Yang Kai pointed to some rebel soldiers in the distance who were faintly visible, working hard to cut down trees. "You see, the rebels have started large-scale logging, they must be preparing to make more cloud ladders and wooden planks that can be used for paving. If General's guess is not wrong, the rebels are definitely going to use wooden planks to fill up the moat, after filling up all the moats outside the south gate, then launch a full-scale attack on the city!"

  "What?" Upon hearing Yang Jie's words, all the generals were shocked and lost their color.

  "There's nothing to be afraid of, I've already thought of a way to deal with it!" Yang Hui said calmly, expressing his thoughts without changing his tone.

  "I finally understand! I'll go prepare right away!"

  After hearing Yang Hui's words, everyone suddenly realized and immediately made preparations according to Yang Hui's instructions.