Traveling through Du He, Li Chengqian's rebellion begins

Li Chengqian still reminded him worriedly: "Du He, don't think about anything now, just give me advice honestly."

"After so many days, there is still no news from Pyongyang City. I don't know what Hou Junji and the others are doing!"

When people have free time, they like to think about random things and talk nonsense. Li Chengqian would mention the attack on Pyongyang several times a day.

Du He said softly: "Pyongyang City is the imperial city of Goguryeo. The defense must be tighter than Liaodong City and Anshi City."

"Plus, there are 10 Goguryeo troops in the city, and we only have 4 soldiers attacking the city. It's normal that we can't take it down in a short time."

Now, three fierce generals, Su Dingfang, Xue Rengui and Xi Junmai, are leading more than 10,000 elite cavalry to lift the siege of Youzhou.

Li Ji, Hou Junji and Zhang Liang were able to command and dispatch only about 4 siege soldiers, including thousands of craftsmen.

With such a small number of people, it is difficult to attack Pyongyang, which has a garrison of 10 people, unless the people in the city surrender voluntarily or there is an insider who opens the city gates.

Otherwise it will take a long and hard fight.

Li Chengqian frowned and said, "The Xueyantuo are now attacking our Youzhou, and the imperial army is busy dealing with the Xueyantuo."

"Besides, it is already the end of July. In two or three months, the mountains in Liaodong will be blocked by heavy snow. I am afraid that the emperor will not mobilize troops here anymore."

The food and fodder seized from Goguryeo could sustain the army for a year or two, so there was no shortage of food.

The only trouble was the cold weather.

It was hard to even sit by a fire in the house on a snowy day, let alone attack the tall and steep city walls in the wilderness wearing cold armor and holding a cold spear.

Du He shook his head and said, "Your Highness, let's wait patiently for Hou Junji and his men's battle report. There's no point in being impatient."

"Hey, that's all."

Li Chengqian sighed helplessly.

...

Pyongyang City.

Above the north city wall.

Countless boulders and arrows shot out from the Tang army's camp and then shot down towards the city wall.

"kill!"

Thousands of selected vanguard soldiers, under the cover of rain of arrows and catapults, carried siege ladders and pushed battering rams and ran quickly towards the city wall.

On the city wall, the defender of Pyongyang shouted.

"The Tang army's rain of arrows is coming!"

"Raise your shield!"

Faced with the overwhelming rain of arrows, the Goguryeo defenders on the city wall were not at all panicked.

They all raised their shields and thick wooden boards to block all the dense rain of arrows.

As for the huge and powerful boulders, they were actually not accurate, and except for a few pieces that fell on the city walls, most of the others fell on the open space inside the city.

When the rain of arrows from the Tang army stopped, the defending general shouted again.

"Pull the crossbow to fight back!"

"Archers, get ready. Wait until the Tang army reaches the city before shooting!"

The soldiers in Pyongyang City pulled their crossbows to fight back.

The bed crossbow was not only powerful, but also more accurate than the Tang army's catapults, and caused greater damage.

If it weren't for the three layers of iron shields, they would have been easily penetrated by the crossbow.

Because the city wall was tall and solid, and had a steep slope, Goguryeo's archers were not worried that the Tang army would be able to climb the city wall in a short time.

When the Tang army rushed to the city wall, Goguryeo archers stood up one after another. They shot at the Tang army under the city despite the rain of arrows shot by the Tang army.

"Shield soldier, quick giant shield!"

Zhang Shigui, who was commanding the siege, roared.

"Dangdang~"

Most of the arrows shot by Goguryeo archers were also blocked by the Tang army's shield soldiers.

The Goguryeo defenders on the city wall lifted up stones weighing dozens of pounds and threw them down, and even dropped hundreds of huge rolling logs.

"Oh!"

Huge rocks and rolling logs hit the shields heavily, instantly causing huge casualties to the Tang army attacking the city.

The vanguard soldiers in the front were blocked and could not attack, and the soldiers behind them could not rush forward either.

Seeing that the casualties were too great, Zhang Shigui shouted repeatedly: "Retreat!"

"The shield soldiers will guard the rear and protect the first batch of soldiers!"

In just a few dozen breaths, thousands of Tang troops who were attacking the city with great momentum retreated quickly like a tide.

Looking at the embarrassed backs of the Tang army, a burst of mocking cheers instantly broke out on the city wall.

"Hahaha, we defeated the Tang army again!"

"The Tang army attacked the city for several days but couldn't even touch the city wall. It seems that this is all they can do!"

"It's only because Mo Lizhi is cautious. Otherwise, if we had opened the city gate and rushed out, the tens of thousands of Tang troops under the city would have been wiped out by us long ago."

After the cheers, the Goguryeo soldiers on the city wall beat drums and gongs to celebrate.

Five miles outside the city was the Tang army’s camp.

Li Ji, Hou Junji, Zhang Liang, Li Daozon, Zhang Shigui and others gathered together. They looked at the defense map of Pyongyang City for a long time without saying a word, and their faces looked extremely solemn.

There was silence for a long time.

Hou Junji said in a deep voice: "Since the siege began eight days ago, the soldiers have fought bravely day and night, consuming more than 8 arrows, but they still cannot reach the wall of Pyongyang."

"If we continue to attack like this, I'm afraid our casualties will be greater than those of the Goguryeo defenders."

In the early stages of the siege, they tried no less than ten methods.

For example, they sent a vanguard of death-defying soldiers to climb into the city from the water wall of the South Gate under the cover of night. They also used fire attacks, water attacks, and tunnel digging, but in the end, all of them failed to work.

Zhang Liang frowned and said, "It seems that we can only use the same tactics we used to attack Anshi City, that is, building a dirt hill!"

Although this method will waste a lot of time and manpower, there is currently no better way than this method.

At this moment, Pei Xingjian, who was sitting at the back and seldom spoke, slowly stood up and spoke.

"The weather has suddenly become hot and humid these past two days, and swallows and dragonflies are flying low in the sky."

"I guess there will be a heavy rainstorm in the next few days."

"If we adopt the siege method of building earthen hills now, the loose soil will be washed away by the heavy rain, which will delay the army's siege time."

Feeling all the eyes staring at him and Zhang Liang's unhappy expression, Pei Xingjian felt a little nervous.

He licked the corners of his dry mouth and continued speaking loudly.

"We don't have much food and arrows. If we delay for another month, I'm afraid the enemy in the city will counterattack us, and then tens of thousands of troops will be in danger."

"Therefore, I suggest that we abandon the siege of Pyongyang and conquer Baekje first!"

"Wait until the weather clears up and Su Dingfang, Xue Rengui, and Xi Junmai return, then we can build earthen hills to attack Pyongyang."

The key to the success of Anshi City's siege method of building earthen hills was to have a brave general and a group of black armor soldiers to form the vanguard.

Otherwise, ordinary soldiers would not be able to rush into the narrow gap in the city wall.

Pei Xingjian felt that instead of wasting time in Pyongyang, it would be better to destroy Baekje.