Chapter 238: Burning The Dragon Formation
This time Shi Xie did not make a mistake. When he saw burning fires and thick smoke everywhere, he immediately realized that this battle could not continue.
He immediately ordered: “Wang Kai’s army hold off the cavalry, other armies quickly retreat back to Longbian County.
Shi Xie must take this opportunity before the enemy army fully launches its attack to immediately cut losses and withdraw back to the county town.
Longbian County town was just three li away. Tens of thousands of the army turned around and quickly withdrew toward the county town, leaving only Wang Kai’s several thousand spearman army to fight to the death holding off the cavalry, not letting the cavalry pursue the main force of the army.
The Jiaozhi Army withdrew very quickly. In the time of one incense stick, tens of thousands of the army had retreated back to Longbian County, leaving only several thousand spearman army soldiers who could not return; they were surrounded by the main force of the army.
At this time, the several thousand spearman army led by the old general Wang Kai was surrounded by the main force of the Western Chu Army. The soldiers shouted loudly: “Those who surrender will be spared, those who stubbornly resist will be killed without mercy!”
Wang Kai also shouted loudly: “No one is allowed to surrender, fight to the blood-soaked end for me!”
Zhao Yun heard his shout and immediately flew into a rage. He raised his spear and charged toward him. The warhorse galloped to in front of Wang Kai. Without a word, he thrust the spear, so fast it was incomparable. Wang Kai had not yet reacted when “Pfft!” the spear pierced his throat.
Wang Kai fell off his horse. By the time he hit the ground, he was already a corpse. Soldiers rushed forward and chopped off Wang Kai’s head with one knife, hoisted it on a spear. Dozens of cavalry raised Wang Kai’s head and shouted: “The commander is dead! The commander is dead!”
Wang Kai’s death became the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Several thousand spear soldiers collapsed and knelt down one after another to surrender.
The war outside the city ended. The soldiers cleared away all the corpses cleanly.
Two li outside the county town, Bu Zhi and the great generals were all observing Longbian County. All the great generals laughed. In their eyes, the low city walls were like a dwarf, not even two zhang high.
Bu Zhi stroked his beard and laughed: “Now I know why Shi Xie pulled the army out to fight a field battle. This city wall is truly a bit ridiculous, too short.”
Taishi Ci suggested: “We can use fire attack, fire attack Longbian County. Start the fire attack at night, and by dawn we can take Longbian County.”
Bu Zhi nodded lightly. “Fire attack is a good strategy!”
All the generals unanimously agreed to use fire attack, and this fire attack meant burning Longbian County.
Everyone was very clear that although using assault ladders could also easily take the city walls, it would inevitably lead to street fighting. To avoid street fighting breaking out, fire attack was the best method.
An even more important reason was that various buildings and civilian houses in Jiaozhi Commandery were all wooden structures.
At nightfall, the city wall was full of ten thousand soldiers. Shi Xie stood in front of the city tower, gazing worriedly at the Western Chu Army to the north.
“Pass on my order: everyone be alert tonight. If any enemy situation occurs, timely ring the alarm bell.”
“Understood!”
Shi Xie went down. Defending soldiers patrolled back and forth, vigilantly watching the Western Chu Army under the city.
At the first watch, a hundred medium catapults gradually approached the city walls, with rough baffles temporarily made in front. The alarm bells on the city wall rang loudly. Jiaozhi Commandery soldiers loosed tens of thousands of arrows together toward the catapults.
But the catapults were basically blocked tightly by the baffles; archery was basically useless.
The alarm bells were still ringing on the city wall, but the hundred medium catapults began launching. One by one ignited incendiary bombs soared into the air, flew over the city wall, and shot toward inside the city.
Soon, a big fire broke out in the north of the county town. Citizens inside the city were all frightened and fled toward South City.
Civilian houses inside the city were all wooden structures, very easy to ignite. The big fire burned fiercely and quickly spread to the central part.
The South City Gate was opened. Citizens desperately fled outside the city for their lives. There were also six thousand troops in South City, but the Western Chu Army ignored the citizens, letting them go. The Western Chu Army only targeted the troops.
The catapults were moved to outside West City and again hurled large numbers of incendiary bombs into the city. A big fire also ignited in the north of the city.
Shi Xie’s official residence was in the north of the city. A big fire ignited in the north of the city, and the big fire soon threatened the prefect’s official residence.
Shi Xie was carried out by the soldiers. Shi Xie shouted: “I want to go to the city wall to supervise the battle! I want to go to the city wall to supervise the battle!”
But the personal guards ignored him and changed him into civilian clothes.
They planned to take advantage of the lax management now, regardless of the citizens’ lives, and at this time disguise as ordinary citizens, which might really allow escape.
“Lord, hurry and leave. The whole city is full of big fires; the county town will sooner or later be burned to white ground.”
Shi Xie
Shi Xie was terrified in his heart and could only temporarily flee outside the city with his son and brothers.
After hurling a thousand incendiary bombs, the catapults stopped launching.
The North City Gate also suddenly opened. Large numbers of citizens fled out from the north of the city, and quite a few soldiers followed behind the crowd of citizens and came out to surrender.
The fierce fire burned more and more fiercely, almost spreading to the whole city. All four city gates were flung wide open. Hundreds of thousands of citizens and tens of thousands of troops fled out of this sea of fire region.
Citizens could leave freely, but soldiers would be intercepted and had to lay down their weapons and remove their armor to surrender. This led to large numbers of soldiers removing their armor, discarding their weapons, and mixing into the citizens to escape.
Basically all the citizens inside the city had fled, and almost all the soldiers had escaped too. The entire county town was swallowed by fierce fire and thick smoke.
This big fire burned for a full two days and two nights before finally extinguishing. The entire county town was burned into a patch of white ground.
After waiting another day, the inside of the city had cooled down, and soldiers began entering the city.
Inside the city, not a single complete building could be seen, only occasionally some broken walls and ruins.
Even so, there was still treasure in the city, like the underground storeroom of the Shi residence. After lifting more than a dozen stone slabs, large amounts of wealth were carried out from the underground storeroom.
Cart after cart of various gold, silver, and treasures were transported out. In addition, three hundred seventy corpses were collected; these were all citizens who did not escape, mostly elderly.
A general quickly walked to Bu Zhi, bowed, and said: “Reporting to Sima, only three hundred seventy corpses were found; they should all be civilians.”
Beside him Zhao Yun said: “The Shi family father and son and officials all ran away. They disguised as civilians and mixed among the citizens; it’s hard to detect them.”
Bu Zhi nodded. This was no big deal anyway. The key was they did not have much grain and could not afford to raise citizens and prisoners of war, so basically ignore the citizens. Prisoners of war could be released as long as they removed their armor and laid down their weapons.
The Battle of Longbian ended. The Western Chu Army had only a dozen men injured, none seriously, and no soldiers killed in action.
This was tasting the benefits of fire warfare.
At the same time, in teams of a thousand, a total of five teams of soldiers went to the surrounding counties to call for surrender. It went basically smoothly; county chiefs of each county all opened the gates and surrendered.
If not counting Wangmei County, there were still seven counties around the burned-to-white-ground Longbian County.
In fact, having taken Longbian County, this war of conquest of Jiaozhou was basically over.
Of course, to the south there were still Rinan Commandery and Jiuzhen Commandery. These two commanderies had few people and small territory; one army could sweep them both.
