Many people may not know about Xuantu City. This city has not left many traces and stories in history.
But here, Shenyang, a city that will rise from the ground in the future, must be more familiar.
Yes, Xuantu is roughly where Shenyang is now.
Xuantu is the center of the Liaohe Plain. Because it is located in the far north, it is named Xuantu, which means tiger of the north.
As an important town that strangles the Liaohe Plain and radiates the entire forest, sea and snowfield, it not only has to guard against the miscellaneous beasts in the north, but also the mountainous ethnic groups in the Changbai Mountains in the east.
Therefore, the Han Dynasty made the city built by Xuantu high and deep. There was a Chinese-shaped pit outside the city, with sharp stakes inserted in it, covered with platycodon and covered with earth.
There are trenches on the inside of the tunnel, with bars and spikes erected. It can be said that such city defense is already very tight in this land of Liaodong.
You must know that the Sushen, Buyeo, and Goguryeo people do have elite soldiers and warriors, but it is really difficult for these tribes and clans to let them attack the city.
On this day, this city faced its first real test since its establishment.
……
In the second year of Taiwu, August 23rd.
Taishan's army of 12,000 infantry and cavalry arrived at Xuantu. At this time, comparing the situation inside and outside the city, the situation was very favorable to the Han army.
The first is that the Han army has a strong city defense; the second is that the Han army is waiting for work; the third is that the Han army is quiet; the fourth is that the Han army has sufficient food and fodder.
But even so, the Taishan Army still launched an attack on Xuantu under this situation.
On the first day of the first battle, the Taishan Army took the lead in launching a tentative attack on Xuantu's west gate with wooden planks, ladders, shields, and chariots.
Although the Taishan Army openly attacked the city with great fanfare, its actual plan was to avoid city battles, lure the enemy into battle, and then annihilate them.
Therefore, when attacking the city, Zhang Chong ordered all his troops to feign an attack and expose weaknesses to lure the enemies inside the city.
But Zhang Chong didn't know that because his light cavalry went east too fast, he didn't know how much chaos and fear it brought to the Han army in the city.
When King Zhang led his main force of 12,000 men to cross the Liao River, Xuantu's sentries had already discovered it. However, Xuantu believed that it would take at least four or five days for the Taishan Army to reach Xuantu.
But no one expected that the Taishan Army would have arrived at the west gate of Xuantu on August 23.
Fortunately, the prefect Ji Gao deployed sentry cavalry thirty miles outside the city. These people came back desperately and sent this letter back, giving Xuan Tu a little buffer time.
After receiving the news, Ji Gao immediately ordered Captain Li Man to lead 400 Han troops to defend the west gate, and then sent the Sushen Battalion to organize the second round of defense.
At that time, there were a large number of tribes from various clans outside the city, and they all followed Jigao's order to go out of the city to clear the countryside.
But originally Ji Gao's order was to let them burn food.
But seeing that the millet fields outside the city are almost ripe, who would be so foolish as to burn them? After these people left the city, one after another, they were all busy cutting millet and transporting it back to their warehouses.
So, when Ji Gao ordered them to return to the city quickly, two evil consequences occurred.
One is that most of the Awada who were originally scheduled to clear the country were left outside, and the other is that some powerful tribes who were relatively far away were intercepted by Zhao Yun with the Feilong Army on their way back to the city, and they were all wiped out, thus weakening the forces in the city.
Finally, the powerful troops who really returned to the city had eight hundred brave men and thousands of captives.
In addition, Jigao's own core armaments in the city were two hundred armored soldiers, and another thousand county soldiers affiliated with the county government. This is the entire force in Xuantu City at this time.
The Taishan army launched an attack as soon as they arrived at the west gate, trying to seize the city gate.
Li Man, who was in charge of the defense of Xicheng, came from the Li family in Liaodong and was a member of Li Min's clan who died in Zhongrenting.
At this time, the Taishan army was in front, and the hatred of the country and the family was there, so he went to the arrow in person, commanded and dispatched, and finally succeeded in repelling the enemy army.
But they didn't know that the Taishan Army was just feinting.
On the opposite side, after the Taishan Army's strategy of feigning an attack to lure the Han Army out of the city failed, they decided to set up their general camp on Qipan Mountain in the northeast outside the city.
During this process, the Han army in the city still did not choose to go out of the city to attack, and there was no night attack that night.
In this way, Zhang Chong understood that the Han army in the city chose to maintain a strong wall and clear the field, without any plans to go out of the city to fight in the field.
But at this moment, Xuantu City was in chaos.
Because various wealthy families lost a lot of troops when they went out of the city to clear out the wilderness. On the one hand, they wanted to replenish their strength, and on the other hand, they wanted to express their dissatisfaction with Jigao. These people began to draw troops inside the city.
The so-called drawing of troops means drawing men from each household and forcibly recruiting the Lu People's Association in the city to defend the city.
This crude method naturally caused chaos in the city. In the end, Ji Gao sent out armored soldiers and killed a group of Guizhou residents to stabilize the situation.
That's right, he killed the people of Lu, not the wealthy tribe.
At this time, Ji Gao knew very well that he could only rely on these powerful troops to defend the city, and then he would have to suffer for these people.
But what Ji Gao didn't understand was that many of the powerful tribesmen who killed people were barbarian warriors from Sushen, Goguryeo, and Fuyu, but almost all the people who were killed were Han people. This turns the issue of suppression into a Hu-Han issue.
Ji Gao's move caused him to lose all prestige among the Han people in the city.
But Ji Gao is not without good news. That is, his reinforcements are also arriving one after another.
As the news of Xuantu's siege spread throughout the county, first the two closest cities, Houcheng and Gaoguli, received the Xuantu beacon fire warning and each led 500 troops to come to the rescue and successfully camped at the west gate of Xuantu County.
Similarly, Zhao Jing, the captain of Liaoyang County downstream of Xiaoliao River, also set out with 500 battalion soldiers and 500 county soldiers. They set out all the way north along the south bank of Xiaoliao River, and finally camped at the south gate of Xuantu County City, looking across the Xiaoliao River from the city.
Originally Ji Gao was very happy to see Zhao Jing leading more than a thousand soldiers and horses to come to the rescue, but at last he saw that the grandson opposite was actually camped on the south bank of Xiaoliao River, separated from him by a river, not to mention that he could withstand the Taishan Army outside the city. .
In this regard, Ji Gao could only call him a rat and say nothing.
However, unlike Zhao Jing who was timid, the reinforcements also coming from the upper reaches of the Xiaoliao River were much more bold and enterprising.
They were reinforcements from Sigeima (Fushun).
Xigeima is located in the upper reaches of Xiaoliao River. The county captain Wangfu in the city led 20 long boats, went south along the Xiaoliao River, and finally camped outside the east gate of the county.
In this way, as reinforcements from the other four cities in Xuantu County arrived one after another, a pattern of three thousand soldiers inside the city and three thousand reinforcements outside the city was finally formed in Xuantu City.
During this process, except for ordering the assault cavalry to defeat and annihilate a reinforcement force coming from Gaoxian (Tieling), Zhang Chong did nothing and watched the Han reinforcements arrive one after another.
The reason for Zhang Chong's move is not complicated. In fact, he used Xuantu City as a magnet to attract all the troops in Xuantu County here.
In order to prevent these reinforcements from being frightened, Zhang Chong even refused the request of his subordinates to gather around for reinforcements.
The reason why Zhang Chong did this was to avoid city battles and defeat Xuan Tu in a field battle.
Through such tactics of mobilizing enemy troops, Zhang Chong unexpectedly discovered an opportunity, that is, this process fully exposed the weakness of the four northeastern counties' lack of unified command and lack of coordination among the counties.
The reason is very simple. Xiangping (Liaoyang), the county seat of Liaodong County, is actually not far from Xuantu County. The news of the siege here should have been known to Gongsun Du for a long time, but until now, no one from Liaodong County has known about it. Soldiers were sent.
Zhang Chong's insight was very keen. In fact, the problems in the four northeastern counties at this time were even more serious than this.
Gongsundu had a certain foundation in Liaodong. On the one hand, his family was deeply entrenched here, and on the other hand, his adoptive father was the governor of Liaodong and had deep political resources in the county.
But even so, Gongsundu was not the only one in Liaodong, and the Li family in Liaodong alone could stabilize him.
But after the Zhongrenting War, not only the situation in northern China was profoundly affected, but also remote Liaodong was profoundly affected.
Following the humiliating death of Li Min, the head of the Li family, in Zhongrenting, Li's reputation plummeted. Those children of Liaodong who fled back to their hometown all said that Li Min made trouble by drinking, which led to the tragic death of three thousand children in his hometown.
You must know that during the battle of Zhongrenting, every family in Liaodong hung white flags. These children who died in the battle were all the heirs of the small wealthy families in the local area.
When such news came, the Li family, let alone being the leader in Liaodong, could only rely on Gongsun Du if they wanted to survive.
As for the idea, Gongsun Du successfully returned to Liaodong with 800 white horses and became a powerful faction.
He even brought back the golden sword of Lu Zhi, the former Zhenbei general, and became the leader of the remaining military remnants of the Zhenbei army.
Even Li Min's son Li Xin attached himself to Gongsun Du's tent and became a halberd-bearing man honestly.
But that's all Gongsundu's fame and power.
The other two counties, such as Xuantu and Lelang counties, actually didn't care about the Caotou prefect. Especially the Wang family of Lelang had humiliated Gongsun Du several times and called him a usurping servant.
That is to say, the vassal state of Liaodong was weak, and the Gongsun family within the territory also followed the lead of Gongsun Du, who was of the same clan, which made Gongsun Du become the leader of the four counties.
But this leadership is very fragile.
Perhaps as time goes by, Gongsundu can integrate the four northeastern counties and the Wuhuan, Sushen, and Fuyu people in the territory, and establish a real political power in Northeast Asia.
But unfortunately, Zhang Chong came too quickly, and history did not give Gongsun Du this opportunity.
Zhang Chong outside the city discovered this problem, so why couldn't Ji Gao inside the city discover it?
In fact, he was panicking at this moment.
He didn't expect that Gongsun Du of Liaodong really didn't care about him at all. Was he really not worried about him surrendering in Kaicheng?
But does Ji Gao dare? He did not dare, because the remnants of the Han army in the city and the princes and nobles who had fled from Youzhou were forcing Ji Gao and the Taishan army to fight to the death.
Otherwise, do you, Ji Gao, really think that you can protect yourself with just your two hundred armored soldiers?
If you can't win the shot, it's even harder to fight.
Ji Gao knew exactly what the strength of the troops outside the city was. No one believed that these people could survive the attack of Taishan Army.
At this stage, the Han army had no illusions about the combat power of the Taishan Army.
How about that?
We can only grovel and beg Gongsun Du for mercy and reinforcements!