Chapter 90: Retreating to defend Shan County

  Wang Silie's three thousand cavalry suffered a loss of over one hundred men, and the remaining troops all retreated back into the city.

  After settling the troops, Wang Silie also rushed to the city gate and reported the situation to Yang Gui. Yang Gui had already seen Wang Silie's heroic actions on the city gate and praised him in person, saying that he would report all the generals' heroic deeds to the imperial court and request rewards, especially the outstanding performances of Wang Silie, Pang Zhong and others, which would be reported to the imperial court for reward.

  Wang Silie was overjoyed as he had always been worried about being punished by the imperial court for his defeat.

  The hay and hot oil on the city wall are no longer being thrown, but the big fire in the moat is still burning, and it's getting more and more intense. The bamboo and wooden boards that the rebels threw into the moat as a bridge have been ignited, and they're burning fiercely.

  Because the bamboo and wooden rafts were all wet, they emitted a large amount of thick smoke when burned. The wind was blowing from west to east, and the rolling thick smoke was blown into the rebel army's formation, blocking out the sky and sun. On the city wall, it was impossible to see the movements of the rebel army's array, only seeing the countless rebels in the rolling smoke embracing their heads and fleeing in disorder, becoming more and more chaotic.

  Wang Silie and Li Chengguang's troops have all withdrawn into the city, but the rebel army, unaware of the situation, thought that the Tang army was still charging and killing, and there were occasional mutual killings in the smoke.

  The rebel offensive has completely collapsed, and no soldiers are attacking the three gates of Tongguan City. However, the Tang army on the city wall is still not slackening off, and the soldiers have not withdrawn to rest, remaining highly vigilant.

  "Marshal, this move is really vicious. The rebel army has suffered heavy losses and will not be able to attack the city again for at least a few days!" Li Fude said with some emotion as he came over to report the situation to Yang Hui.

  Yang Hui's mouth corner revealed a hint of disdainful smile, and he said lightly: "The rebels only thought that bamboo and wood rafts can be used to build bridges, but they didn't think that the bamboo and wood rafts would burn very fiercely. If they use bamboo and wood rafts with mud and stones alternately to fill up the moat, it's possible that we won't be able to stop them from crossing the moat. But even if they can cross the moat, they still won't be able to capture Tongguan City!"

  As Yang Kai said this with a confident face, the various generals who came to report on the battle situation each had their own thoughts, but they all shared one common idea: under Yang Kai's leadership, Tongguan City would be defended.

  The rebel army, which has been repeatedly defeated, may not have the ability to attack the city again. Even if they do, they will still be unable to break through Tongguan Pass.

  There are already over 600,000 soldiers inside Tongguan City now, and the follow-up reinforcements are still pouring in continuously. When there were only over 10,000 remaining defeated soldiers and generals inside Tongguan City, the rebel army could not break through the city even then. With 600,000 to 700,000 troops defending the city wall, Tongguan is definitely impenetrable.

  "Report!" A soldier came quickly from a distance, ran up to the gate tower and rushed in front of Yang Hui, panting heavily: "General, the rebel army has retreated!"

  The soldier came running from a beacon tower in the middle of the eastern and southern gates, where the smoke was too thick to see far away due to the heavy fog in the direction of the southern gate. However, the smoke was not too heavy in other directions, allowing him to see the movements of the rebel army in the distance. The soldier on the beacon tower saw that the rebel army had already retreated towards Hantang Pass and hurried over to report.

  Yang Qian looked intently into the distance, still unable to make out the rebel army's movements.

  At this time, the soldiers on several other beacon towers of the Twelve Connected Cities also came to report one after another that the rebel army had retreated and was quickly withdrawing in the direction of Hantonguan City, while tens of thousands of rebels near Hantonguan City were retreating in all directions.

  According to reports from various directions, Yang Kai confirmed that the rebels were finally unable to withstand the heavy casualties and retreated. However, he did not immediately order the soldiers on the city wall to withdraw and rest, nor did he order any general to go out of the city to pursue them. He wanted to wait until the situation was clear before making a decision.

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  It turned out that Yang Jinsi was too cautious, and after the rebel army suffered such a heavy blow, it showed signs of collapse. After Cui Jianyou reported to An Qingxu, An Qingxu was shocked and immediately ordered the entire army to retreat back to Shanzhou.

  No one had expected such a situation. After formulating the battle plan and assigning tasks, An Qingxu thought that the fierce battle below the city would be led by his own troops, who would fight hard to capture the head of Tongguan City, and finally break through the city at great cost. However, it was unexpected that just as the army began to attack the city, they were outmaneuvered by the Tang army once again.

  A massive fire that turned countless soldiers into charcoal, the attacking formation immediately fell into chaos, and the number of soldiers who trampled each other to death was countless. The Tang army took advantage of the chaos among their own troops and rushed out of the city to launch a surprise attack, killing many soldiers under their swords. The defense line collapsed in an instant, not to mention launching another attack, whether they could withstand the Tang army's surprise attack was unknown. Fortunately, the Tang army also had concerns and did not launch a large-scale counterattack, otherwise, the consequences would be difficult to predict.

  Fortunately, when An Qingxu ordered the attack on the city, he ordered Tian Gan and An Shouzhong, Li Guiren to lead their troops to respond on both sides and the rear wing. Otherwise, the Tang army's all-out attack might have really defeated these hundreds of thousands of people.

  At the time of fleeing quickly from under Tongguan City, An Qingxu was still afraid and self-reproaching. Today's attack was too hasty, and he did not expect that the Tang army would adopt a fire attack to defend itself.

  "This Yang Jintao is really not a simple person!" An Qingxu sighed as he fled from Suizhou City, passing through the dilapidated Hanting Gate.

  However, when withdrawing to Hantangguan Castle, An Qingxu stopped again. He couldn't abandon the soldiers under his command and had to gather them to prevent the Tang army's pursuit attack. If the Tang army dared to come out of the city to pursue him, he would set up an ambush along the way without hesitation, and when the Tang army's pursuing troops arrived, he would give the Tang army a fatal blow, just like in the Battle of Lingbao.

  He immediately ordered his trusted generals An Gongchen, Li Guiren and Tian Gan to lead their troops to set up an ambush on another narrow mountain path west of Lingbao. One was to respond to the rear troops, and the other was to prepare for a surprise attack on the possible pursuit of the Tang army, fighting a turnaround battle.

  Cui Gan-yu rallied the unscattered troops around him and hastily withdrew from Tongguan, planning to join forces with An Qingxu and retreat to defend Shan Prefecture.

  Cui Gan's personal command still had 30,000 troops, which did not suffer a major blow and remained intact. However, there were tens of thousands of scattered troops behind who had not been rounded up, and it was uncertain how many would be able to escape. Cui Gan also believed that the Tang army would definitely pursue them, so he planned to abandon the scattered troops and set an ambush with his personal command in a certain place to counterattack the Tang army.

  Cui Jianyu and An Qingxu joined forces and immediately began discussing countermeasures.

  However, just as they were discussing how to set up an ambush, a soldier came to report that the Tang army in Tongguan City did not come out of the city to pursue them.

  "It seems that Yang Jie knows he can't leave the city to pursue our army, he's just defending and waiting for reinforcements!" Angrily, An Qingxu threw away the horse whip in his hand and said indignantly.

  "Your Highness, what shall we do?" asked Choi Geon-yo, who was afraid of being blamed for the consecutive defeats.

  "Withdraw to Shanzhou and report the situation at Tongguan to His Majesty!" An Qingxu said, ignoring Cui Gan, mounted his horse and galloped eastward.

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