Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 65 Change of Owners
Si Qing now has three choices. The first is to refuse to defend the city wall and help his comrades climb the city wall first. The second is to take advantage of the enemy's confusion and immediately attack the north gate tower. The third is to separate some soldiers and capture the empty east gate where the enemy is stationed.

He looked at the three-story north gate tower and saw Zhou Bian leading the thief Cao soldiers and some Danyang soldiers, chasing the defeated soldiers, and getting closer and closer to the gate tower.

Suddenly, there was a sound of something sharp breaking through the air, and dozens of arrows flew out from the arrow windows of the gate tower and the arrow tower, shooting at the enemy troops on the city wall.

Zhou Bian and his men lacked the protection of wooden shields, and more than ten of them were shot down in an instant, lying on the ground groaning. Even several defenders who did not have time to escape were shot to the ground.

Si Qing's eyelids twitched, and he remembered what Zhou Bian had said before, that there were still 400 copper-clad personal guards behind the north gate. Without hesitation, he shouted, "Quickly retreat and form a defensive formation!"

He decided to first mobilize the cavalry under the city, and then launch an attack on the north and east gate towers. Only these elite cavalrymen in iron armor had the combat power to capture the gate towers.

The three hundred cavalrymen moved extremely fast and reached the foot of the city in an instant, climbing up the ladders.

At this moment, after Qian Tong received the news that the enemy had attacked the city wall, he had just set off two groups of reinforcements that he had dispatched in a panic.

Qian Tong's army was too slow to mobilize, with the prepared against the unprepared, cavalry against infantry. When most of the 300 cavalry had climbed up the city wall, the reinforcements had just arrived at the gate tower.

But Qian Tong had no time to consider these details, because the enemy troops below the city were constantly attacking the city walls.

The huge flying tower stood beside the city wall like a beast biting its prey. The heavy bridge deck had been placed on the parapet, and the tower door wrapped in a layer of iron sheets had also been opened. Soldiers rushed out of the door continuously, holding shields in their left hands and swords in their right hands, stepping on the bridge deck and rushing towards the city wall.

Six ladders were erected on both sides of the flying tower, and soldiers, also holding wooden shields, were climbing up the ladders one by one.

A battering ram was also pushed to the front of the city gate, and the logs equipped with metal spikes hit the hanging gate again and again, making a deafening sound.

Qian Tong looked at the defenders who were already in a state of decline, his face full of disbelief. He really couldn't understand why the defenders, who outnumbered the enemy and occupied the strategic location of the city, were still unable to repel the enemy.

There's no way we can repel them!

After Si Qing captured the city wall and three hundred cavalrymen rushed to support, Qian Tong dispatched three hundred and fifty defenders to reinforce, two hundred of whom were from the personal guards in the city, and the other one hundred were from his left wing defense line. After these reinforcements left, there were actually only more than seven hundred defenders left on the left wing of the city wall, only two hundred more than the enemy troops under the city.

Among these more than 700 defenders, 200 were Wan Bing's subordinates who were slacking off the whole time; 300 were miscellaneous soldiers with insufficient combat effectiveness; and only more than 200 people who were loyal to Qian Tong fought to the death to defend the city.

Coupled with the low morale of the defenders and the fact that a brave general like Su Ze was transferred to garrison the west gate, the combat effectiveness of the left-wing defenders was extremely low. If it were not for the strategic location of the city, they would have been defeated long ago.

Yan Yi, who was at the foot of the city, also discovered this situation. Originally, he had only made a feint attack to tie down the enemy and relieve some of the pressure on Xu Sheng, Chen Gan, and Si Qing. However, after discovering that the casualties caused by the defenders to his own army were lower than expected, he gradually increased the intensity of the feint attack and gradually began to prepare for a strong attack.

As the pressure on the defenders grew, and seeing that the enemy was about to rush up the city wall, Qian Tong's psychological defenses finally gave way. He did not dare to summon the civilians to the city, fearing that an internal force would emerge again. In desperation, he could only order his men to transfer the remaining 150 guards to defend the city.

These 150 personal guards are his last trump card, all of them are cavalry. If the situation could not collapse at any time, Qian Tong would not be willing to let them go into battle.

Watching the departing messenger, Wan Bing's heart leaped. He knew he couldn't wait any longer. If Yan Yi's army stormed the city walls, Yan Yi would be utterly savage. He had to strike before Qian Tong's guards arrived, and now was the perfect time. With this in mind, Wan Bing no longer hesitated. He quietly retreated to another parapet, flanked by thirty or forty of his men, and shouted, "Qian Tong, the thief, must be killed! Brothers, join me in rebellion! Whoever captures and kills this thief will be handsomely rewarded by Young Master Yan!"

As he finished speaking, his loyal subordinates brandished their swords and slashed at their former comrades, killing dozens of them in an instant and injuring even more!
The city walls were covered in blood and chaos reigned.

Qian Tong stood there in a daze, his mind blank. He was so shocked by this sudden change that he was at a loss and completely stunned.

Then, he suddenly let out a hysterical roar, drew his sword, and rushed towards Wan Bing, who was grinning like a madman: "Yellow Turban dog thief, I swear to kill you!"

Qian Tong's psychological defenses completely collapsed. First, Zhou Yu and Fan Yi rebelled, and then it was Wan Bing, whom he had always trusted and relied on. The situation was about to collapse. The foundation he had built with years of hard work was about to fall into the hands of others. It was like a thousand knives cutting his heart, and it was so painful!
Several of his trusted men hurriedly hugged him and pulled him back towards the gatehouse: "Marshal, we can't stay here for long, let's go!"

Qian Tong came to his senses and looked around. He saw that the enemy had already attacked the city wall and the defenders were fleeing in all directions. Around his subordinates who were protecting him, the rebels were surrounding him with ferocious faces, like greedy wolves, staring at his good head.

He shuddered suddenly, and fear began to drive away the anger in his heart. Under the protection of dozens of subordinates, he stumbled and fled towards the gatehouse.

Su Ze, who was stationed at the west gate, saw from afar that the situation had collapsed. He no longer wanted to defend the city and led his troops to retreat into the city.

Han Yang's troops in the west city immediately set up ladders to attack the city and easily captured the west gate.

At the other end of the north city, Xu Sheng, Chen Gan, and Si Qing were leading three hundred elite cavalrymen and two hundred internal soldiers to attack the gate tower.

Although the 250 personal guards under Qian Tong were brave and their combat effectiveness was not inferior to that of Yan's cavalry, they lacked a powerful general to lead them and were killed and forced to retreat step by step.

Xu Sheng, Si Qing, Chen Gan and Fan Yi took turns to attack, and their fierce attack not only caused significant casualties to the defenders, but also posed a huge psychological deterrent to them.

Fan Yi was especially brave and powerful, and almost all the defenders knew him. However, at this time, he was the one who fought the hardest, causing the morale of the defenders to collapse.

Finally, under the continuous casualties and pressure, the defenders could no longer hold on and fled into the gatehouse.

Yan Yi's army on both sides of the north city began to form a pincer attack on the gate tower.

When Qian Tong fled hastily into the city under the escort of dozens of personal guards, the defenders in the gatehouse completely collapsed, dropped their weapons, and knelt down to beg for surrender.

At the same time, the East Gate was also captured by more than one hundred Danyang soldiers assigned by Si Qing.

All three gates of Yuncheng were broken at once, and the soldiers under Yan Yi poured into the city like a tide. When the general's flag embroidered with a huge word "Yan" fluttered over the city gate, it officially announced that the city that had troubled the Yan family for years had finally changed hands!

(End of this chapter)