Chapter Eighty: The Entire Army Halts Its Attack

  An Qingxu and Cui Qianyou's planned attack was as follows: while making a feigned attack on the east and north gates with several thousand men, they would launch wave after wave of attacks against the south gate with an army of 10,000 men, without giving the defenders at Tongguan Pass any respite.

  While the troops were crossing the moat and climbing up to the west wall preparing to ascend the city, tens of thousands of soldiers transported stones, earth, felled trees and bamboo, concentrating on filling in the narrowest section of the moat outside the south gate's east side, preparing to fill this section of the moat level and turn a natural barrier into a thoroughfare.

  An Qingxu dared to make such a decision because of the 150,000 troops under his command and the nearly 200,000 troops led by his father An Lushan, who was approaching within two days. Judging from the situation during the daytime attack, there were at most only over ten thousand Tang soldiers inside the city, with weak combat effectiveness. If they launched a night attack and took advantage of the darkness to fill in the moat while the Tang soldiers on the city wall could not see clearly, it would provide an opportunity for them to fill in the moat. At the same time as attacking the city, they would fill in a section of the moat. After filling in a section of the moat, they would increase the intensity of the attack and must capture Tongguan City.

  After An Qingxu's order was issued, the rebel army's attack also began immediately. The first 10,000 cavalrymen continuously climbed from the east bank of Jin Gou to the west bank, using cloud ladders to support the battle. The soldiers responsible for filling up Jin Gou also started working, using sacks to fill in mud, stones and large pieces of wood and bamboo to fill up Jin Gou.

  However, after the attack began, An Qingxu and Cui Gan led the battle and discovered that something was amiss.

  The eastern embankment of the Forbidden Moat is about 80 paces, or approximately 120 meters, away from the south gate of Tongguan City. This distance is basically within the range of the Tang army's arrows and crossbow bolts fired from the city walls and the twelve beacon towers. Anticipating that the rebels would fill in the Forbidden Moat with earth during their attack on the city, Yang Hui ordered 4,000 soldiers to launch a dense barrage of arrows against the attacking rebels as soon as they began charging into the moat.

  Of course, the bed crossbow on the city wall also started continuous shooting.

  After Dou Hua and Zhang Jian led the 8,000 cavalry to get a brief rest and replenish their food and water, they also supplemented the south gate under Yang Hui's order. In this way, the defensive force in the direction of the south gate had nearly 16,000 people, which was twice the original number of personnel, and the number of soldiers shooting each wave also doubled, and the arrows flying out from the city head naturally also doubled.

  The number of soldiers on each beacon tower along the Twelve Linked Cities has also been increased to three hundred men.

  "Report to the general, the arrows on the city wall are densely packed and our casualties are heavy!" A soldier rushed to the front of a commander who was directing the siege, hastily reporting the situation, "The Tang army's reinforcements seem to have arrived, the city wall is full of people!"

  "Got it, investigate again!" The Wu surname Zhonglang frowned and ordered the reporting soldier to go and investigate the situation again. After the soldier ran away quickly, he immediately passed on the order to the soldiers waiting beside him, "Quickly report the attack situation to Prince Taizi and Vice Commander Cui, the Tang army's reinforcements have arrived, the arrows on the city wall are denser than during the day, our army has suffered heavy losses!"

  "Yes, General!" The waiting soldiers immediately ran off to report the situation to An Qingxu and Cui Qianyou who were watching from a hill behind.

  "What? The Tang army's reinforcements have already arrived at Tong Pass?" An Qingxu was shocked upon hearing the soldier's report on the situation and the Tang army's circumstances on top of the city wall.

  Actually, he had already sensed something was amiss from the Tang army's shouting and unusual drumming sounds on the city wall earlier, and had been guessing whether it was the arrival of more Tang troops at Tongguan, but didn't expect to be proven right.

  "Has the Tang army's reinforcements really arrived at Tongguan?" Cui Gan-yu was also greatly surprised.

  Judging from the situation of the battle this afternoon, the subsequent Tang army did not arrive at Tongguan, but now the situation seems to be different from this afternoon. The formation of the Tang army on the city wall also seems to have changed, and the arrows shot down are more dense than during the day, and the shouting is louder. If this is not a trick of the Tang army to pretend to be strong, then it must be that the subsequent reinforcements of the Tang army have arrived.

  But neither An Qingxu nor Cui Qianyou dared to confirm whether it was really the Tang army's reinforcements that had arrived.

  They did not wish for this situation to occur, if the Tang army's main force were to arrive at Tong Pass, then it would be impossible to fight this battle. The natural barriers of Jin and Gou would reappear, and even if they were to gather all their troops and launch a desperate charge, they still wouldn't be able to breach the walls of Tong Pass.

  Due to doubts, An Qingxu did not issue new orders, and the charge through the moat and filling it with earth continued.

  Under the dense arrow fire of the Tang army on the city wall, a large number of soldiers who were charging fell down in the moat or inside the moat. Many soldiers who were preparing to fill the moat with mud were also shot down on the east side of the moat, and the mud they carried was not able to be filled into the moat. For a time, the east bank of the moat was piled up with corpses, countless wounded people lay there in pain, groaning and shouting, hoping to get help from their companions, but what they got instead was indifference from their companions, or even trampling.

  The number of rebel soldiers shot down along the eastern bank of the Forbidden Channel was extremely large, so that the subsequent charging soldiers were greatly disturbed.

  There were also many corpses and wounded people in the trench that had been washed away, and other long stretches of trench that had been scoured clean began to fill up with bodies again.

  The city wall of Tongguan City is about 4-5 zhang (13-15 meters) high on average, plus the height difference in terrain, it is at least 7-8 zhang (20 meters) higher than the east bank of Jin Gou, and more than 1 zhang (3 meters) higher than the city wall. The beacon towers on the twelve connected cities are even higher, nearly 10 zhang (30 meters) higher than the east bank of Jin Gou, and 34-40 meters higher than the bottom of Jin Gou. Because of the counter-height impact against the terrain, the rebel army standing on the east bank of Jin Gou can shoot up to the city wall with a nearly horizontal shot, but the force is already weak, it is very difficult to shoot to the beacon towers on the twelve connected cities, unless there are powerful generals like Wang Silie and Pang Zhong.

  The rebel soldiers who rushed to the bottom of the trench were unable to shoot arrows that high, so it can be said that the rebel charge had to withstand the arrow rain and hard charge, and the casualties on both sides were completely disproportionate.

  "Reporting to Your Highness, the Tang army's arrows are extremely dense and have already caused over two thousand casualties, but no one has crossed the moat!"

  The soldier's report made An Qingxu feel even more uneasy, he was completely certain that the Tang army's reinforcements had already arrived at Tongguan. He also knew that with the arrival of the Tang army's reinforcements, their night attack would no longer have the desired effect. After painful deliberation, An Qingxu made a decision that even he himself couldn't tell whether it was wise or foolish.

  "The crown prince's order has been received! The entire army will cease its attack!"

  The black lamp is blind, and it's extremely difficult to go up and down the trench. Even during the day when the light is sufficient, you have to be careful not to fall down. At night, the difficulty increases exponentially, and many soldiers who were lucky enough to avoid being shot by arrows fell and got injured or died while trying to get into the trench. The Tang army's reinforcements had arrived, but under the dense arrow fire from the city wall, the soldiers carrying mud couldn't even rush to the edge of the trench.

  In this situation, to avoid more casualties, An Qingxu could only reluctantly issue the order to stop attacking and instead switch to continuous harassment of the city head with small teams, and fight again after dawn.