The substitute prince: Reported the emperor's brother at the beginning

Chapter 221: Defense of the Capital

King Huai certainly knew that the capital was now deserted and all the remaining soldiers and horses had little combat effectiveness. Just by looking from below, he could see that many of the soldiers were not even wearing armor.

King Huai looked up with disdain. Seeing this scene, he felt that he could take over the coveted capital as soon as possible.

The commander of the vassal king's troops beside him bowed and said, "Your Highness, now that the troops have arrived, can we quickly attack the city?"

"No hurry." King Huai said calmly, "The capital is right here, within easy reach, but the old emperor's offspring are coming soon from the north."

"You will personally lead the 50,000-man army to the north to stop that brat and prevent him from going south to support the capital. Let me take the capital first."

The commander bowed and said, "I obey your command."

The commander led a group of soldiers and horses to leave one after another. The whole process was witnessed by those on the city wall. Baoguo Gong sighed and said, "They must be going to stop the Sixth Prince's troops. I hope the Sixth Prince can defeat them as soon as possible."

This made the Duke of Baoguo, the Marquis of Zhennan, and King Huai all worried.

They all thought that the Sixth Prince led a group of remnants to defeat the arrogant Fang family army and wiped out the entire Fang family army, and they must have suffered heavy casualties.

It is enough to send only 50,000 troops to intercept them.

Several swift horses emerged from the ranks of King Huai's army and raced to the outside of the city walls, shouting, "Listen up, men above! The current emperor is tyrannical and cruel. King Huai, concerned for the well-being of the nation, does not want the legacy of our ancestors to fall into the hands of the barbarians. He has personally led an army to quell the rebellion. As Taizu's subjects, you should immediately surrender and welcome King Huai. Everyone will be promoted and rewarded handsomely. Otherwise, once the army breaks through the city, no one will be left alive."

The shout was full of justice.

This is to describe the rebellion as helping Taizu protect his foundation.

Duke Baoguo immediately ordered archers to drive away the cavalry.

King Huai didn't care at all. He had already ordered the newly arrived army to build siege equipment.

The reason why King Huai was so active was because there was a King Ji looking for trouble in the direction of King Huai's palace. Now we have received news that King Ji has begun to attack the city.

He had to capture the capital as soon as possible so that he could send troops to drive out Prince Ji and rescue Prince Huai's palace.

Otherwise, if he loses his hometown and occupies the capital, he will suffer a great loss.

Of course, King Huai was more eager for the capital. If he could exchange the capital for Huaizhou Prefecture, he would not hesitate at all.

This is also the reason why he did not retreat even though he knew that Prince Ji was attacking Huaizhou Prefecture.

In his eyes, nothing is more important than fighting for the throne and taking revenge.

For one reason, the only news he knew was that 30,000 local elite troops in the south were coming to support the capital, but the journey was long and it was expected to take several days to arrive.

In addition, a large army was coming to support from the northwest. He knew that he had to take the capital as soon as possible.

However, there are not many elite troops in the capital now, and this is the easiest time to take it down. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that must not be missed.

In the afternoon, all the newly built siege equipment was pushed forward. Although they were crude, there were still quite a few of them.

There were ladders, simple ladders, and even a group of rather crude catapults and battering rams.

King Huai could not wait to order his well-fed and well-watered army to attack the city quickly.

This time, King Huai directly attacked from two directions at the same time, with the west gate and the north gate being the directions of attack.

Looking at the rebels approaching with all kinds of equipment, all the soldiers on the city wall sighed with worry.

"Bang bang bang bang bang" Before the people arrived, many catapults had already thrown stones onto the city wall.

The inexperienced soldiers on the city wall kept screaming and panicking.

Fortunately, the law enforcement teams that Baoguo Gong forcibly deployed everywhere calmed down the entire chaotic team after hacking and killing several people in succession. They asked them to guard the city well, and if they dared to cause trouble again, they would continue to kill them.

Duke Baoguo also gave orders, and the catapults organized in the city began to launch a counterattack.

In order to guard the capital well, as an experienced Duke Baoguo, he naturally made a lot of preparations in the city.

Many houses near the city wall have been demolished. As for the original residents, no matter how dissatisfied they are, they can no longer care about that. They have to defend against the rebels first.

The ancient catapults were used to throw stones at each other. Although the casualties were not great, the psychological impact was still good.

As soon as King Huai's army approached the city wall, a large number of arrows were shot at the wall, and on the wall, teams of archers were organized to fight back.

Both sides suffered casualties. In such a large-scale battle, both sides deployed more than 200,000 troops, and the scene was quite magnificent.

Tall ladders were built on the city walls, and King Huai's soldiers rushed towards the city walls along the ladders, howling.

The city walls were also quickly defended by organized troops.

The two sides fought hard, but the panicked Beijing camp found that they had difficulty coping except for a group of well-equipped soldiers of King Huai.

Those who rushed over from behind were actually a group of ordinary people without any armor, and they even had shovels and wooden sticks in their hands.

The chaotic battle between the two sides lasted for more than an hour. King Huai's army suffered too many casualties from the forced attack, and many people ran back in panic.

King Huai's face turned pale and he angrily said, "These unruly people actually dared to come back. Kill them all!"

A subordinate immediately advised: "Your Highness, you can't do this. They are just civilians who were coerced. If you kill them all, the army will soon lose its morale."

King Huai had no choice but to give up, but he ordered several leaders to be beheaded.

The order to withdraw the troops has not been issued yet, but so many people have come back. How can he be happy?

Although the soldiers of the Beijing Army on the city wall also suffered heavy casualties, they breathed a sigh of relief. No wonder King Huai's troops seemed to be so numerous, it turned out that most of them were civilians.

Then what is there to be afraid of? Everyone has become much more confident.

But think about it, he is just a King Huai, he doesn't have much capital. At most, he can only support 30,000 elite soldiers, so how can he have the assets to support an army of 200,000? Even if it is an ordinary army, the consumption is huge, which is not something that a so-called King Huai can arm.

But even so, King Huai's elite troops drove this group of people and rushed forward in a mighty force with shouts of killing that shook the sky, which was enough to make people uncomfortable.

King Huai's elite troops rarely climbed the city walls. They served as law enforcement and archers in the rear.

King Huai was reluctant to waste his only 20,000 elite troops in such a siege.

Yes, King Huai had only 30,000 elite troops in total, 10,000 of whom were left behind in Huaizhou Prefecture as a precautionary measure. The others were either the several thousand ordinary city defense troops in Huaizhou Prefecture who occasionally fought against bandits, or most of the others were able-bodied men who were forced to join King Huai's palace.

There were also tens of thousands of able-bodied men who were brought along along the way. For King Huai, these people were just the cornerstone before he ascended the throne.

It is their honor to contribute to the ascension of this royal prince to the throne.