Chapter 282
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Chapter 282: Li Kuo’s Decision
On the west battlefield of Songhe City, this agonizing siege battle continued.
Below the city wall, numerous bodies continuously piled up, and the fighting on the wall top was even more brutal.
Dark red blood almost stained the entire wall surface a new color.
In the distance, Li Kuo’s hand gripping the sword hilt had turned ashen from gripping too tightly.
As the siege battle progressed, the number of bodies piled below the city wall had reached an alarming figure.
However, there was still no movement from Jiang Wei’s side.
He had basically confirmed in his heart that Jiang Wei had most likely encountered trouble.
This further increased the pressure on Li Kuo.
Zhou Dongnan’s order was to capture Songhe City in one go before sunset, but now there were continuous complications.
First, Jiang Wei ran into trouble and couldn’t attack Songhe City’s east wall as planned.
Second, the defending general of the west wall was extremely tenacious, holding the wall top and stubbornly fighting him until now.
With the emperor’s order on one side and the current situation on the other, this dire predicament left Li Kuo in a dilemma.
Just then, Songhe City’s tightly closed city gate slowly began to rise.
This clearly greatly exceeded Li Kuo’s expectations.
The soldiers near Songhe City’s gate, seeing it open, instinctively thought that Songhe City’s wall top had been captured by their own men and rushed inwards.
However, what awaited them was actually dozens of sharp spears!
The first wave of charging soldiers was killed on the spot by those dozens of suddenly thrusting spears before they could even see anything clearly!
At the same time, a synchronized sound of footsteps emanated from behind the city gate.
The heavy and powerful steps continuously struck everyone’s hearts, putting considerable psychological pressure on the enemy outside the city gate.
Li Kuo looked intently into the distance.
He saw the enemy advancing out in a strict formation, with spearmen leading the way and a large number of shield-axe soldiers following closely behind.
“What do they want? To actually come out and fight us?”
Li Kuo frowned upon seeing this formation.
Although he hadn’t directly captured Songhe City’s wall top at this point in the battle, his forces still held a clear advantage in terms of the overall situation.
For the enemy’s defending general to send infantry units out to meet them at this moment would inevitably lead to a decrease in the defending forces on Songhe City’s wall.
Was he not afraid the city wall would fall?
Of course, from the enemy’s perspective, Li Kuo wished nothing more than for the opponent to make a serious mistake so he could capture the city wall in one fell swoop.
Therefore, he naturally paid close attention to the movements at the city gate.
Estimating the number of troops advancing out, there were at least 500 men, which made Li Kuo delighted.
If this force was withdrawn, he didn’t believe the enemy could still hold the city wall!
With this thought, just as Li Kuo was about to order his soldiers to charge the wall top again, the continuous scene unfolding in the distance made the joy on his face gradually disappear.
“How is this possible? There are more than 500 troops advancing out?!”
The formation was still pushing outwards!
The enemy was clearly using a slow-attack strategy.
Relying on the spearmen’s length advantage and maintaining a spear formation, the enemy’s formation slowly pushed outwards, continuously forcing back the soldiers blocking them near the city wall.
In a few breaths, they opened up a survival space.
Subsequently, seeing the number of enemy troops completely charging out from the city gate, Li Kuo’s expression changed completely.
He quickly looked up to confirm the situation on the distant city wall, only to find that the number of defending soldiers on the enemy’s city wall had barely decreased.
“No, this is impossible, this is impossible!”
“What kind of joke is this? Where did the enemy get so many troops?!”
The immense pressure on him made Li Kuo’s mind a complete mess.
Having fought the siege battle until now, he basically had an idea of how many defending troops the enemy had.
However, this infantry unit that had pushed out had a troop strength of at least 1,000!
With one hand on his forehead, maintaining a grim expression, Li Kuo tried to organize his chaotic thoughts.
Then, as if he suddenly realized something, his expression drastically changed.
“We are dividing our forces, and the enemy is also dividing their forces?!”
Upon reaching this conclusion, Li Kuo’s heart twitched violently.
“Their initial forces were divided into two parts.”
“The unit responsible for garrisoning Songhe City was only a portion of them from beginning to end, while the other portion went to do something else…”
“Ambush Jiang Wei?!”
At this moment, the more Li Kuo pondered, the uglier his face became, and his heart sank continuously.
“And now, the unit that ambushed Jiang Wei has returned.”
“Then, Jiang Wei, could he have…”
Li Kuo no longer dared to think further, this was simply a nightmare!
At the same time, Songhe City before him seemed to transform into an ancient behemoth, becoming hideous and terrifying!
“Quick! Destroy all the siege tower’s wheels, then all troops retreat!!”
His troop advantage was gone.
If they continued to fight, they would likely pay a heavy price!
As a conservative general, Li Kuo never liked making impulsive decisions.
In his opinion, it was wise to first preserve their forces by retreating to Shangyuan City, then fight a defensive battle to stabilize their position, and only after regrouping, look for an opportunity to counterattack.
At the same time, before retreating, he issued the order to destroy all the siege tower’s wheels.
This was because he clearly understood that with the siege tower’s weight, trying to move it would be impossible.
This could also be said to be one of the major flaws caused by installing so much bronze armor plating, as its defensive power came at the cost of speed.
Thus, the siege tower could not be brought back.
But leaving it there would undoubtedly benefit the enemy for free.
If the enemy were to use this siege tower to attack his Shangyuan City later, that would be a huge problem.
So, before leaving, all the wheels had to be destroyed!
Accompanied by the blowing of the retreat horn, Shangyuan City’s siege army began to withdraw.
Zhao Pan ordered his troops to symbolically pursue for a certain distance before calling them back.
Because, counting this battle, the infantry unit Luo Ji had sent back to support him had already fought two battles in a row without a break in between.
The soldiers’ physical condition had to be considered.
At the same time, the enemy was not utterly defeated and they were retreating in an organized manner.
In other words, the enemy still had the power to fight.
Pursuing further would basically offer little hope of severely damaging the opponent and would only incur additional casualties, making it truly unnecessary.
On Songhe City’s side, with Li Kuo’s siege army retreating, the entire siege battle could be said to have temporarily ended.
Meanwhile, Guo Zhen and Jiang Wei’s pursuit battle would not be so easy to conclude.
