Chapter 2230: Break through Xiao Pass and attack Chang''an


    Chapter 2227: Break through Xiao Pass and attack Chang''an


    Wei Qing led 30,000 cavalry and launched a raid on the Sui State from the western front. At the same time, Huo Qubing''s 40,000 cavalry also arrived at Xiaoguan.


    Due to the division of troops and the act of Wei Qing taking the lead in attacking the Sui Dynasty, Huo Qubing''s troops exposed his whereabouts in advance.


    When he learned that the Qin army was suddenly attacking and there were only dozens of miles left from Xiaoguan, the guard general Li Cunxu was shocked.


    Now there are only 5,000 defenders in the pass, and there is no precaution in advance, so it is too late to be on guard and deploy.


    Li Cunxu knew very well that with the power of Xiaoguan, he could not resist the Qin army that was as good as a wolf and tiger. Once Xiaoguan fell, the entire western part of Guanzhong would be under the threat of the Qin army''s iron hooves, and the Qin army could even drive straight into the city of Chang''an.


    Li Cunxu, who realized the seriousness of the problem, commanded the defenders to make every effort to deploy defenses and gain time as much as possible, while asking for help from Chang''an, hoping that the Tang army reinforcements could arrive as soon as possible, otherwise the fall of Xiaoguan would be only a matter of time.


    After Li Shimin learned about Xiao Guan''s news, he felt extremely regretful of the act of dispatching troops from Xiao Guan, but it was too late to say anything now.


    The importance of Xiaoguan is the same as that of Tongguan Pass. Once Xiaoguan is contributed, it is useless for the Tang army to defend Tongguan Pass. So for the Tang Kingdom now, nothing is more important than keeping Xiaoguan.


    Li Shimin mobilized the army as soon as possible and sent reinforcements to Xiaoguan direction, but before the reinforcements set off, Xiaoguan''s offensive and defensive battle had already begun.


    Huo Qubing came too quickly, much earlier than Li Cunxu expected. Before the defense of Xiaoguan City Tower was adjusted, the Qin army had already launched an attack on the city.


    This time, the Qin army was raiding for a long distance, so there were no large-scale siege equipment such as catapults, only cloud ladders and simple well railings to attack the city.


    With such bargaining equipment, it is naturally difficult to capture Xiaoguan, but this time the Qin army was unintentionally caught the enemy off guard.


    When Xiaoguan’s Tang army learned that the Qin army was attacking, basically everyone was confused. They couldn’t believe that Xiaoguan, who was in the rear, would have been attacked by the Qin army. So is there any safe place in the Tang Kingdom?


    After reacting, the Qin army had already attacked the city, and the offensive was extremely fierce. Not only were there three war gods including Gongsun Xuanyuan, Jintai, and Long Qi, but even the chief general Huo Qubing personally participated in the siege, so that the Tang army was directly confused as soon as they fought.


    After all, Li Cunxu was the commander of the commander of the 96th. Seeing that his defenders were beaten and retreated step by step, he quickly mobilized the casting stones and powerful crossbows to gather fire among the Qin generals.


    Although this move restricted senior generals such as Gongsun Xuanyuan, it also greatly dispersed the firepower of the Tang army, giving the middle and lower-level Zeng Qin army an opportunity to take advantage of it, and also allowed a large number of soldiers to climb the city tower.


    Seeing a large number of Qin soldiers climbing the city tower, Li Cunxu decisively led the personal guards to stop them, and wanted to strangle all the Qin soldiers who climbed the city tower. However, after killing most of the Qin soldiers, Huo Qubing and Meng Yi climbed the city tower one after another.


    Seeing that Huo Qubing came up, Li Cunxu was overjoyed and quickly brought people to surround and kill Huo Qubing on the city tower. When the Qin army lost its chief general, they would definitely retreat, but were blocked by Meng Yi halfway.


    After Li Cunxu fought with Meng Yi several times, he found that Meng Yi was unable to do anything in a short period of time. On the other hand, Li Cunzhang and Li Cunxin joined forces to fight Huo Qubing.


    Li Cunxu and Meng Yi fought for fifteen rounds, not only did they not gain an advantage, but were completely suppressed. Just when he was secretly thinking that something was wrong, he found that Li Cunzhang and Li Cunxin had been killed by Huo Qubing one after another.


    Li Cunxu was shocked and the connection of the moves stagnated. He was stabbed in the throat by Meng Yi and died on the spot, and then his head was cut off. Seeing Li Cunxu die at Meng Yi''s hands, the morale of the Tang army plummeted and began to show signs of defeat. No matter how Deputy General Li Cunxian shouted, he would be unable to turn the tide.


    Immediately afterwards, Gongsun Xuanyuan and other generals climbed the city tower, Li Cunxian was also shot by Huo Qubing twice, and the Tang army had no place to resist, while the Qin army took advantage of the situation to completely occupy Xiaoguan.


    From siege to breaking the pass, it only took three hours. The Tang army came for a day and didn''t hold on, so Huo Qubing captured Xiao Pass.


    After the war, the Qin army suffered two thousand casualties, two thousand killed two thousand Tang army, and one thousand captured one thousand.


    In addition, the remaining two thousand defenders fled out of Xiaoguan and were chased by Long Qi''s cavalry. They had no choice but to escape, and eventually they all chose to surrender.


    For Huo Qubing, the biggest benefit of conquering Xiaoguan was not to open up the northern gate of Guanzhong, but to store 100,000 stones of grain and grass in the pass.


    This batch of food and grass was prepared by the Tang army to prevent the Sui army. Li Cunxu and Li Cunxian both died in the battle in the city, so they did not have time to burn it, so they all gave the enemy Huo Qubing the price.


    Huo Qubing traveled lightly and simplifiedly this time, and the long-distance raid was more than 3,000 miles, and the food he brought had almost eaten.


    Long before the war began, Huo Qubing was ready to use war to support the war, and even forcibly collect grain from the people.


    As the ninth largest granary in Guanzhong, the people will definitely have surplus grain at their homes. As long as they invade Guanzhong, the Qin army can collect grain on the spot, and there will definitely be no shortage of food and grass.


    As for whether the people in Guanzhong are willing? Huo Qubing couldn''t control it. As the national war began, he would not care about the wishes of the lower-level people, let alone the people of the enemy country.


    Long-distance raids are normal. It is not the first time Huo Qubing has done this forcibly collecting grain from the people of enemy countries. The only difference is that he used to **** it from the hands of foreign people, but now he has to **** it from the hands of the Han people.


    For the safety of his soldiers, Huo Qubing didn''t mind taking on these infamy. At worst, he would compensate these people after the war, whether it was to pay for money and food or exempt taxes.


    Huo Qubing was ready to bear the infamy, but he didn''t want to send 100,000 stones of food and grass to help him guide Guanzhong.


    Now that there is 100,000 stones of grain and grass in Xiaoguan, Huo Qubing naturally has no need to force the grain collection from the people, and the people in Guanzhong have temporarily escaped.


    Huo Qubing, who had obtained a large amount of food and grass through Xiaoguan, did not stay in Xiaoguan for a long time, but set out immediately and prepared to go straight to Chang''an.


    Huo Qubing led his army to guard Xiaoguan for five thousand troops, led the generals such as Jintai, Gongsun Xuanyuan, Meng Yi, Li Jin, Yuexi, etc., and led 34,000 iron cavalry to go out of Xiaoguan east and marched towards Chang''an at full speed.


    After leaving Xiaoguan, Huo Qubing''s troops marched for only half a day before they encountered 40,000 Tang army reinforcements coming.


    The chief general of the Tang army was Li Shimin''s brother-in-law Changsun Wuji. In addition, there were generals such as Gao Siji, Gao Xingzhou, Shi Jingtang, Zhang Xiu, and Xu Rong. They were gathered with elite troops and were definitely an elite army.


    (This chapter ends)