Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 495: A Tricky War

Outside the city of Xi'an, people, old and young, some pushing wheelbarrows, some riding in horse-drawn carriages, some carrying shoulder poles, formed a long stream of people, queuing up to enter the city.

In order to prevent spies from sneaking into the city, the defenders checked every citizen entering the city, which resulted in an extremely slow progress in entering the city.

Many able-bodied men in the city were digging horse-traps outside the city and setting up some defensive fortifications.

Lin Shiqi decided to hold out in Xi'an, and then use the troops of Liang Sanhu and Yuan Zongde to go around and control Xiaoguan, the pass on the Great Wall. However, what Lin Shiqi didn't know was that Sengge was already considering escaping before the battle even started.

The Qing envoy said that they did not encounter any resistance along the way, which just proved that the Qian Dynasty had a weak base in Guanzhong, so there was no need to worry and they could just kill their way to Chang'an.

Sengge was far away in the western desert and knew very little about the Central Plains, but he also knew that the scale of wars within the Central Plains was large. The Huns, Turks, and even the Yuan Dynasty were all defeated by the Han people in the Central Plains. Therefore, to be on the safe side, Sengge left nearly 10,000 cavalry at the pass leading out of the Great Wall to prevent the retreat from being cut off.

Even with Sengge's strict orders, these scattered cavalrymen from various tribes still broke away from the team from time to time to search for property in various towns and villages. Although there was no one, a lot of good things were left in many families, such as iron pots, shovels, porcelain, clothes, bedding, etc.

Before Sengge's army arrived at the city of Xi'an, his subordinates were like people moving house, with many carrying large and small bags. This in turn encouraged more people to search for supplies everywhere. This also allowed Lin Shiqi's scouts to capture a lot of prisoners, from whom they obtained a lot of intelligence about Sengge's troops.

Sengge could no longer stop this situation. The tribes in western Mo were all very poor. Even if Sengge kept promoting the fact that there were countless money and grain in Chang'an and that the gold could fill an entire city, he could not get these people to drop their packages.

At the beginning of the first lunar month, the Mongolian army finally arrived at the western suburbs of Xi'an.

When Sengge's vanguard arrived at the city, they were all shocked by the huge monster before them. When they were poor to a certain extent, the imagination of wealth could not escape from the fantasy in their minds. Now, many Mongolian cavalrymen began to believe the words of their own Khan. Perhaps gold could really fill a city.

The Qing envoy said to Sengge: "Great Khan, Guanzhong is now extremely empty, and Chang'an is so rich and huge. Don't you want this wealth that is within your reach?"

Sengge looked at the towering city in front of him, feeling both desire and hesitation in his heart. Everyone wants good things, and if he could capture the city of Chang'an, Sengge would not refuse.

The inner desire finally overcame his reason. Thinking of the gold and silver treasures, silk and wine in the city, and the soft and boneless beauty, Sengge decided to take a risk.

At this time, Lin Shiqi, Du Yinxi and a group of generals stood on the city wall, overlooking the densely packed yurts below the city.

The military generals and Du Yinxi all looked calm, but a large group of civil officials were a little uneasy.

A civil servant whispered: "Warfare is dangerous, war is dangerous!"

Du Yinxi coughed loudly and glared at the civil servant who spoke, scaring him so much that he dared not say anything.

Du Yinxi then retracted his gaze and said with a faint smile: "Everywhere I look, there are Mongolian military tents. It is indeed a bit intimidating!"

Lin Shiqi laughed and said, "If these unarmored people didn't have horses, one of my soldiers could be worth ten captives!"

"The Western Mongols are unaware of the changes in the Central Plains, nor do they know how powerful your majesty's military power is. They have undoubtedly been deceived by the Qing court." Du Yinxi stroked his beard and nodded.

Lin Shiqi couldn't help but laugh when he saw that the Mongols under the city were still using catapults. These people thought they were in the Song Dynasty.

The subordinates asked if they should open fire with the artillery, so that they could hit the trebuchet now. Lin Shiqi shook his head and said, "No, we can't fire too hard. We need to buy more time for Liang Sanhu and Wu Tiao!"

The next day, Sengge gave an order and the other three tribes from Moxi took the lead to attack the city of Xi'an. Sengge was also very cunning. If they could take it down, that would be the best. If they couldn't, they could also weaken the strength of the three tribes and prepare to completely annex the three tribes.

The Mongols had withdrawn from the Central Plains for more than two hundred years and had long been lacking experience in siege warfare. Their simple ladders looked small and fragile in front of the city walls, and only catapults could pose some threat to the defenders.

When the first wave of attack was launched, as soon as the ladders reached the city wall, many of them were smashed by the rolling stones and huge logs defending the city. Many soldiers fell and screamed. On the city wall, arrows rained down, ruthlessly reaping lives.

In many previous battles in the Central Plains, the damaging effect of arrows did not seem to be reflected. Almost a large part of the Qing and Qian armies wore armor, and even light armor could withstand the damage of arrows. However, these Mongolian herdsmen only had a cotton jacket, and being shot could cause extremely serious injuries.

This was because Lin Shiqi was worried that if he hit too hard, Sengge would be scared away, so he didn't even use the artillery.

The battle lasted for a whole morning, and Sengge's troops did not pose a major threat to the city walls. There were corpses everywhere under the city walls, and the blood had dyed the soil red. The scene was extremely tragic. In just such a short period of time, a rough count showed that Sengge had left behind at least two thousand people.

Seeing the heavy losses, Sengge immediately ordered a retreat. This siege was simply a disastrous one. It was simply impossible to capture such a big city with such equipment.

After returning to the tent, Sengge frowned and hesitated, wondering whether to retreat. At this moment, an urgent military intelligence came. It turned out that a dozen soldiers from the Tahasa tribe were picking up things in a small town, and they found that a large army was heading west.

This news shocked Sengge, and he felt that there was danger. So in the afternoon, Sengge gave an order and the entire army broke camp and marched quickly towards Hetao.

Lin Shiqi, who was on the city wall, saw the commotion in the Mongolian camp and thought that Sengge was trying to regroup and build a more complete siege weapon. However, the more he looked, the more he felt something was wrong. Lin Shiqi said in surprise, "Are the Mongols going to run away?"

Sengge came quickly and left even faster, leaving Lin Shiqi dumbfounded. Lin Shiqi's subordinates were all infantry, so it was almost impossible for him to catch up with Sengge in a short time.

Sengge traveled thousands of miles to the outskirts of Xi'an, but after fighting for a whole morning, he just slipped away like a joke. No matter how hard Lin Shiqi tried, he couldn't figure out what Sengge meant by bringing hundreds of thousands of people to Guanzhong to play tricks on him?

With such a short time, Liang Sanhu and Wu Tiao might not be able to stop Sengge. However, Lin Shiqi did not give up and sent out scouts to track the direction of Sengge's march.