After three days of deployment, Li Shimin was sure that he had turned Yang Guang into a turtle in the urn.
Lion Castle was surrounded by 200,000 Tang Legions.
At the same time, he could observe Yang Guang walking out of Huiwu Fort and walking in the camp through his telescope every day.
On the first day of the encirclement, Yang Guang also made an attempt to break out of the encirclement to the south, but was quickly repelled by Hou Junji's troops who were waiting in full formation.
All this made Li Shimin no longer doubt that his plan was being implemented successfully.
His only worry now is that these 200,000 troops are not enough, and more troops need to be mobilized.
But he didn't want to drag out the decisive battle for too long.
At this time, Fang Xuanling came up with an idea for Li Shimin.
He pulled Li Shimin to the sand table, pointed to a point on the sand table and said: "Your Majesty, please look at this.
This is a pass in the middle of Shouyang Mountain.
It is called Shouyang Pass.
It is currently occupied by the Shen Guang Department of the Sui Army.
If our army can occupy it, Firstly, this pass can cut off the route of the northern reinforcements to the Sui army.
Secondly, our army does not need to deploy so many troops between Lion Castle and Shouyang Mountain.
These troops can be deployed to strengthen defense or offense on other sides. " Li Shimin thought over and over again and said in deep thought: "We can give it a try, but we cannot invest too many troops.
No matter what we do now, the first thing we must ensure is to trap Yang Guang."
Shouyang Pass is not very tall, the city wall is only three or four battles high.
Moreover, there are no moats or trenches in Shouyang Pass.
But just under this low city wall, there are now thousands of corpses of Tang army soldiers lying in various directions.
The flag of the Sui army still flew above the closed city tower.
Shouyang Pass was not as easy to fight as Fang Xuanling thought.
Although there were only 5,000 defenders, they were the most elite Xiaoguo Imperial Guards in the Sui Dynasty besides the Tianxing Army, and they had already made long-term defense preparations.
The Tang army's attack on Shouyang Pass ended in failure.
Not only did it fail to achieve its goal, but it also lost more than 2,000 troops.
Li Shimin categorically gave up his plan to capture Shouyang Pass first, and concentrated his forces to besiege Yang Guang and the Sui army who set up an ambush to come to the rescue.
Then, Li Shimin launched his first tentative attack from the north of Lion Castle.
There were only more than 20,000 Tang troops participating in the attack, but this was still twice the strength of the Sui troops stationed at Lion Castle.
The 20,000-strong Tang army rushed towards the Sui army's defense line in a dense mass.
When they were only thirty battles away from the defense line, more than two hundred Beiwei guards and more than a thousand Xiaoguo Army crossbowmen who were lying behind the barrier suddenly stood up, fired their bows and crossbows, and charged at the first few rows of Tang troops.
The layers fell under the rain of arrows.
After several rounds of arrows, there were as many as two to three thousand casualties in the Tang army.
However, the soldiers of the Tang army continued to press towards the trench like a tidal wave.
When these soldiers of the Tang army jumped up to less than half a battle high, they discovered that there was actually a trench behind the low barrier.
The Sui army actually dug the trench inside the barrier, and the trench was nearly a battle deep.
Those Sui soldiers who fired bows and crossbows The soldiers all stepped on short ladders to shoot.
Now these Sui soldiers had already retreated to the other side of the trench and had taken away the ladder.
The war drums of the Tang Army urging the charge were still rumbling.
Although these Tang Army soldiers were trapped, they still had to bravely charge forward.
Fortunately, although the trench was deep, it was not so deep that jumping in would cause casualties.
So the Tang soldiers put away their swords and rifles, and jumped into the half-wide ditch one after another like dumplings.
When the Tang army, which was the first to jump into the bottom of the ditch, began to climb towards the other side of the ditch, the Sui army suddenly emerged from the edge of the ditch.
Nearly two thousand Xiaoguo guards used their nearly four-meter long spears to attack the Tang army in the ditch intensively.
How could the Tang soldiers who crowded the ditch hide amidst the crackling sounds of bones and flesh?
The Tang soldiers in the ditch were pierced one by one.
Heads and bodies, screams and wails echoed across the battlefield.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
However, because their line of sight was blocked by the barrier, the Tang army behind them did not know the battle situation ahead.
When they saw a large number of Tang soldiers crossing the barrier, they thought they had broken camp, and they all rushed forward bravely.
When they jumped onto the barrier, they discovered the situation behind the barrier, but at this time they could no longer hold back.
Even if they could hold back, the Tang Army charging behind would knock him forward.
The corpses of Tang soldiers in the trench were piled higher and higher.
Within a few minutes, the entire trench was filled to only half its depth.
It was only then that a few captains who were lucky enough not to be rushed into the trench reported the situation.
Before, Li Shimin saw soldiers from the Wan Tang Army rushing into the camp and thought he had won.
At that time, he did not expect to win so easily.
After Li Shimin heard the news, he opened his mouth in shock, and then said bitterly: "I said it couldn't be so easy.
Quick, sound the gong and retreat."
With the rapid sound of gongs in the Tang Army's formation, the Tang soldiers stopped and slowly retreated back.
However, those Tang soldiers who had jumped into the ditch could not climb out again.
At this time, thirty or forty fireballs suddenly flew from the sky.
Some of the retreating Tang troops were former Wagang troops.
They knew that these were explosive bombs unique to the Sui army, and they hurriedly avoided them.
But most of the soldiers of the Tang Army did not know what it was and thought it was a fire starter launched by an ordinary trebuchet.
This thing looks scary, but the chance of actually hitting someone on the head is very low, and it is often used for siege purposes.
They didn't understand or think about why Sui Jun would use this thing at this time.
With a series of loud rumbling noises, huge flames burst into flames from the position in front of the defense line.
In an instant, it swallowed up more than a hundred Tang soldiers and quickly turned them into burning people.
These burning people howled in pain, ran, and some began to roll on the ground, but after a while, they fell silent.
At this time, those Tang soldiers who were retreating slowly and leisurely started to panic, started running, and became a mess.
The Sui troops in the camp entered the trench again, set up short ladders, and fired at the Tang troops running at the rear.
This further aggravated the chaos of the Tang army, and a crowding and stampede ensued.
When Li Shimin saw this scene, he was speechless for a long time.
At the end, he said: "I didn't expect the Sui army to become so powerful.
Fortunately, this is a trial attack.
My Xuanjia Army Commander Lin Jun has not yet used it, otherwise the losses would have been great."
When all the Tang troops withdrew, Li Shimin counted their numbers and found that in just a few minutes of fighting, the Tang troops had lost more than 15,000 men.
Now, Li Shimin seems to have only one choice before him.
First, the siege lasted for a long time until Yang Guang ran out of ammunition and food.
At the same time, he waited for work during the siege and continued to consume the Sui troops who came to help.
The second was to mobilize 200,000 Tang troops to launch an all-out attack and kill Yang Guang in one fell swoop.
But if Yang Guang failed to be killed, the Tang army, which suffered a large number of casualties, would no longer be able to maintain this situation.
In the end, it would definitely be rescued by the Sui army who came to help, causing all previous efforts to be wasted.
This entangled Li Shimin, who was unwilling to wait too long and unwilling to take risks
.
: