An Qingxu sighed after receiving a report from Cui Qianyou that the attack on Tongguan was stopped because of a flood in the Forbidden ditch, which caused a bridge of corpses piled up in the ditch and more than a thousand soldiers passing through to be washed into the Yellow River.

The natural danger of the Forbidden ditch can be said to be an extremely difficult gap to cross in their minds, which is very troublesome. After the defeat of Lingbao, a large number of corpses of Tang army sergeants almost filled the Forbidden ditch, making the Forbidden ditch almost a thoroughfare. After Cui Qianyou's report, An Qingxu was overjoyed and repeatedly ordered Cui Qianyou to launch an attack on Tongguan City at any cost. Cui Qianyou did the same, but failed to do so. In the end, he was defeated under the city, and the water rising in the forbidden ditch wiped out all the troops. All his efforts came to nothing, which made An Qingxu extremely disappointed.

What disappointed him even more was that An Qingxu actually stopped attacking Tongguan City and led his troops to retreat and rest after a flood broke out in the forbidden ditch.

After receiving the news from Cui Qianyou, An Qingxu was furious. What he wanted was to continue attacking, not giving the Tang army on the city a chance to breathe, and trying to capture Tongguan City before the Tang army's follow-up reinforcements arrived.

An Qingxu knew that if reinforcements from the Tang Army arrived one after another, the difficulty of attacking Tongguan City would increase exponentially. Even if they could overcome the difficulties caused by the natural dangers of the Forbidden Valley, relying on Tongguan City's tall walls and steep terrain, they would have to attack the city. The head was also very difficult. After receiving Cui Qianyou's report, he immediately ordered the attack to continue and personally led a group of troops to rush to Cui Qianyou's headquarters near Tongguan.

Cui Qianyou was in a dilemma after receiving An Qingxu's order to continue the attack.

He has ordered the entire army to retreat and prepare to rest and fight again.

If the sergeant is forced to fight again without taking a rest, not to mention the greater cost, the morale of the army will be greatly affected. There is no hope of achieving results at all, and the life of the sergeant is wasted. Therefore, he also While urgently reporting to An Qingxu and explaining the reasons clearly, he immediately ordered the sergeants to rest and replenish food and drinking water. At the same time, he ordered his generals to prepare for the attack at night.

Although Cui Qianyou's order to stop the attack was a bit stupid, it was not unreasonable. After An Qingxu rushed to Cui Qianyou's command post and listened to the explanation in person, his anger subsided a little. After taking a rough look at the terrain of Tongguan City, An Qingxu listened. After receiving Cui Qianyou's report, he further understood that Suitongguan City was easy to defend but difficult to attack. He did not further blame Cui Qianyou, but discussed how to attack next.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses are approaching Tongguan City. The Han Dynasty has captured Tongguan City. It is impossible to retreat like this no matter what. Even if we have just suffered heavy losses and even if there are huge difficulties ahead, we must continue to work hard.

"Attack the city overnight!" This was the conclusion An Qingxu came to after convening all the generals and senior generals to discuss.

They also had the latest idea on how to attack the city, which was to fill in the soil and build roads, turning the natural dangers of the forbidden ditch into a thoroughfare.

The terrain at the east gate and north gate is too dangerous and is not suitable for large-scale deployment of troops. It is just a feint attack, and the main attack can only be at the south gate. However, the attacks in these two directions will continue and achieve the best results.

After the order was issued, the sergeants who had been given more than two hours of rest immediately took action, preparing to launch a continuous attack on Tongguan City at night. The order they received was: before the attack began, the previously forbidden ditch outside the south gate should be filled in.

Outside Tongguan City, more than 100,000 horses and horses have gathered. As long as each person has a handful of mud, they can fill the forbidden ditch.

The water flow in the forbidden ditch is now much smaller than that in the afternoon. The water level is only half the height of a calf. It is gradually decreasing. By tomorrow, it is estimated that it will be almost at the height of the instep. If hundreds of thousands of people work together, we can Fill the forbidden ditch.

The decision was made, and the sergeants took action immediately. About half an hour after Zhang Jian's troops of the Tang Army arrived at Tongguan, Cui Qianyou commanded the former soldiers and horses to start a large-scale attack on the city again.

Hearing the sergeant's report that the rebels were attacking the city overnight, Yang Xi was not surprised at all. However, when he reached the top of the city and saw torches flashing all over the mountains and plains, he was still a little shocked.

Hundreds of thousands of people and horses, tens of thousands of torches, dotted the entire mountains and fields, which was very spectacular.

It was almost half a month already, and the moon was quite big. The moonlight gave a rough outline of the mountains and fields, and the formation of rebel soldiers could be vaguely seen. It was very dark and scary. They were everywhere, under the torches. The momentum is even more frightening. However, the Tang Army sergeants at the top of the city did not pose a very big pressure. After experiencing such a cruel battle during the day, the rebels almost attacked the city, but the rebels have not yet started to attack. The pressure on the city could not be greater than during the day, not to mention that the rebels had not yet reached the city, and had only marched to the east edge of the Forbidden ditch.

"Marshal Yang, the rebels are attacking the city at night. It should be just a tactic to exhaust the troops. They don't let our troops rest and want to wear down our sergeants!" Wang Sili, who was standing side by side with Yang Xi on the city gate tower, looked at the slowly The torch array advancing towards the forbidden ditch said with a little doubt: "Marshal, the general is a little confused about why Cui Qianyou gave up the opportunity to continue the attack during the day and abandoned nearly 10,000 soldiers at the gate of Tongguan City before stopping the attack. , after nightfall, he ordered the sergeant to attack again? Isn’t it right for him to do this?”

"General Wang, if my prediction is correct, An Qingxu should have arrived with his army and personally commanded the siege. Cui Qianyou was forced by An Qingxu to attack overnight!" Yang Xi looked at Wang Sili and The other generals said in a very confident tone: "The rebels attacked the city at night. They must not have expected that my reinforcements had arrived. They still wanted to capture Tongguan before my reinforcements arrived! If they found out that my reinforcements had arrived, , your confidence will definitely be frustrated, and you won’t necessarily stop attacking soon!”

"Marshal Yang is right!" Pang Zhong on the other side added, "The rebels attacked like this today, regardless of the cost of casualties, just to break through Tongguan before our reinforcements arrived. If they find that our reinforcements have arrived, then They are likely to stop attacking, or even withdraw from Tongguan and return to defend Luoyang!"

The other generals also agreed with Yang Xi and others, and Ge Shuhan, who had been silent, did not express any objection.

Seeing that everyone thought so, Yang Xi further strengthened his thoughts and said: "Everyone thinks so, so I have decided that once the rebels begin to attack the city, they will fight back with all their strength. To make the rebels misunderstand, I will give them a lot of The reinforcements have arrived at Tongguan, frustrating their belief in victory!"

"Yes, Marshal, I understand!" All the generals responded in unison.

Yang Xihan ordered again with a face: "The natural danger of the Forbidden ditch has reappeared. The rebels are unable to launch a large-scale attack on the city. Maybe they will use mud, stone or bamboo to fill the ditch to cross the Forbidden ditch! We cannot let the rebels The forbidden ditch must be filled up, and we must give it a severe blow, so that the entire army is prepared to meet the rebels' siege with the densest arrows! Let them taste what it means to rain down arrows!"

"Yes, Marshal!"
Chapter completed!