In Heyangguan City, Xue Guyan had a cold and stern look on his face, pointed at several captains who were tied to the torture frame and shouted angrily: "Hit me, beat me hard! Sixty military sticks for each person, no allowed."
Missed one!"
As the soldiers came forward and wielded their sticks to torture, several of the victims suddenly couldn't bear the pain and screamed for mercy. Xue Guyan turned a deaf ear to this, looked around the soldiers around him and continued to say in a deep voice: "Thieves army
A fierce battle is happening right in front of you. If you see anyone in the city breaking the ban on drinking alcohol again, the first offender will be punished, and the second offender will be killed!"
He himself was in trouble due to drinking, and returned from a major defeat on the south bank. He lost his troops, lost his territory and fell into the city. Now he was deeply abhorred by this bad habit. He strictly prohibited the soldiers guarding the gate from making this mistake and letting the enemy take advantage of it again.
Seeing the awed expressions on the faces of the soldiers around him, Xue Guyan still felt a little unfulfilled, so he continued to shout: "Although the bandit army is not strong in strength, it is good at conspiracy, especially at night, and it is difficult to prevent it! Therefore, it is necessary to defend at night.
Be more attentive and cautious than during the day, and don’t let thieves take advantage of you!”
All the soldiers agreed with a loud voice, and Xue Guyan nodded with satisfaction, and patrolled around the wall again before returning to the inner city to rest.
But after dinner, he always felt uncomfortable all over his body, especially as if there were thousands of insects and ants crawling between his throat and esophagus, which made him feel itchy and unbearable. He wished he could drink it down with the strongest wine and drown it all.
A disturbing glutton.
But he had issued a new ban on alcohol in Guancheng, so he couldn't turn around and break his words and become fat. He walked around the room holding his belly and beating his chest for a while. The feeling still didn't subside, so he brought some vinegar and took a few sips in an attempt to rely on that.
The sour feeling suppressed the tightness in the chest and abdomen, but when the sour feeling subsided, the alcohol addiction came back twice as much.
"Come on, someone is here..."
Just when the defense line of reason was about to collapse and Xue Guyan could no longer bear to call people to drink, a soldier outside the door rushed in and shouted to Xue Guyan: "General, the bandit army south of the bridge is approaching the pass.
We are approaching and seem to be launching a night attack!"
"Well done! Put on my armor quickly!"
Xue Guyan was currently in a fierce battle with the inner demon of alcohol addiction, and needed to distract himself. After hearing the news, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he secretly said that the enemy's plot was just as he had expected, and he had anticipated the enemy's opportunity.
In addition, I felt a sense of satisfaction in defeating myself. Before the battle even started, I felt I had won most of the battle. When I finished donning the armor, I immediately walked out with my head held high, heading straight towards Guancheng.
At this time, the sky was completely dark, but the moonlight was shining on the sparkling river. Although the view was blocked, it was not so dark that one could not see his fingers.
Xue Guyan climbed to the top of the Guanqiang City and looked towards the south. He saw that the river bridge deck was undulating rhythmically up and down, and the amplitude of the fluctuations was getting larger and larger. At the source of the bridge deck fluctuations,
There were thick black figures walking towards Guanqiang. Although the steps were very slow, they gave off a sense of chilling.
"The dog thieves are so incompetent that they don't dare to form a formation to attack during the day. They only dare to harass at night. Open the city gate and form an array to attack, so that these thieves will never return!"
Xue Guyan sneered, and then looked back at the soldiers in the pass. He personally selected the warriors and soldiers, and soon formed a 500-person infantry team, and then walked out of the pass under the leadership of Xue Guyan.
Outside, we formed an array in front of the pass to meet the enemy.
At this time, several newly erected crossbows on the Guan Tower had also been wound up with nooses. The crossbow arrows were aimed at the river bridge in front of the Guan, and they would deal a cruel blow to the enemy as soon as they got within the best range.
When it comes to city defense skills, the soldiers of the Eastern Dynasty, whose main body was the Six Town Soldiers, were naturally not as proficient as the Kansai people, but the level of craftsmanship in the Eastern Dynasty far exceeded that of the Western Dynasty.
This large-scale bed crossbow placed on the Guanlou requires the power of several oxen to be successfully cocked. An arrow shot more than a hundred feet can be penetrated by heavily armored men and horses. Although it has the disadvantage of being inconvenient to move, it is
A very terrifying defensive weapon. Especially in places like Heqiao where advance and retreat must follow a fixed passage range, it is enough to make the invading enemy hate you on the spot!
When all three cities in Heyang were originally defended, there was no need to install this heavy weapon in Zhongli City. But now that Nancheng has been lost, there is no reason to show mercy to the enemy.
When the enemy troops were setting up defenses along the river embankment, the crossbows on Heyangguan City were also set up. Ten crossbows were arranged on the south wall of the Guan Tower. The crossbows were all directed towards the river bridge. Just because
The angle difference results in different firing ranges, ensuring that within one mile of entering the pass, the enemy will be struck by the crossbow at different locations.
The enemy gradually approached and soon came within the range of the bed crossbow. There were soldiers at the top of the city asking for instructions whether to fire the powerful crossbow.
Xue Guyan knew that the bed crossbow was very powerful, but because it was too heavy, the shooting frequency was low. The interval between each arrow was almost more than a quarter of an hour. If the enemy came within range and fired, it would scare them away.
But it was difficult to cause considerable damage, so he waved his hand to wait for a while. When the enemy got deeper into the shooting range, he fired several crossbows together, causing chaos in the enemy's formation.
So the soldiers at Guancheng waited patiently for the enemy to continue to advance, until the distance between them was reduced to within a few dozen feet. Through the moonlight, they could even see the specific layout of the enemy's front line.
But it was a good thing that he couldn't see it. When he saw the familiar box truck in the enemy's front line, Xue Guyan's head suddenly buzzed, and a fresh and strong sense of humiliation suddenly surged into his heart, with a long gun in his hand.
Pointing toward the river bridge in the south, he shouted angrily: "Shoot! Shoot these Western thieves!"
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz...
Accompanied by a strong roar, several powerful arrows no less thick than short spears shot out of the city and shot straight towards the river bridge shrouded in the night. Then there were dull vibrations on the river bridge one after another.
, and accompanied by several short screams, the crossbow arrows hit the targets on the bridge one after another.
"Follow me and kill the thief!"
Taking advantage of the brutal blow caused by the powerful crossbow to the enemy's formation, Xue Guyan took the lead and charged straight to the south. The five hundred soldiers who had been arrayed behind him also rushed to follow, as if they were an indestructible torrent.
Go straight down the river bridge.
However, as the distance between the two sides narrowed, Xue Guyan suddenly realized that the situation seemed to be contrary to his imagination. There was no scene of the enemy troops being in chaos on the bridge in front because of the powerful crossbows, and there were no enemies screaming and fleeing.
Alchemy soldiers, the scene was deserted and strange.
But now that he had charged out, he had no time to think about it. He just continued to charge southward, and when he approached the enemy's target closest to Guancheng, he was a little dumbfounded.
I saw that it was an abandoned carriage. The horse pulling the carriage in front had already been hit by an arrow and fell to the ground. The tall carriage at the rear also showed a gap as big as a fist on the north side, and the powerful crossbow arrows went straight into it. This gap
Something was flowing out of the place. Xue Guyan stepped forward and touched it, and soon he touched a hand full of river sand.
"What happened..."
After realizing this, Xue Guyan suddenly felt something bad in his heart, and soon realized the enemy's method of avoiding Guancheng's powerful crossbows.
The bed crossbow is indeed powerful, but its shooting path is relatively fixed and never goes outside the river bridge. However, the river bridge is not wide, and two vehicles driving side by side take up most of the width.
The boxcars driving ahead were not loaded with the silk goods that Xue Guyan saw when he was on the Gushui River, but full of river sand.
Although these river sands are very soft when stepped on, when placed in a cage, a crossbow that is so powerful that it can pierce even heavily armored men and horses has difficulty in shooting through them. As for the soldiers of the Western Wei Dynasty who were accompanying the chariot.
, then it will be more difficult to harm.
Of course, it is not completely invulnerable. There is always a gap between sand trucks, and it is impossible to predict the impact point of the crossbow on the bed above the Guancheng wall. Some arrows directly hit the box and cage containing sand.
, and some hit the side or simply passed over the obstacle and hit the soldiers.
But in any case, due to the obstruction of the sand truck, the powerful crossbows fired from the top of Guancheng City completely failed to achieve the killing effect that Xue Guyan expected. As for the chaos in the formation, there was no need to think about it.
Except for a few sand carts that were frightened away by the animals pulling the carts and rushed out of the bridge and into the flowing river, the soldiers behind the train were not greatly affected. When Xue Guyan was still looking at the sand
While the car was in a daze, several large spears with long blades were piercing straight through the sides of the box car.
"Back off, back off for now!"
Seeing that the long-awaited killing move was so easily defused by the enemy, one can imagine Xue Guyan's bad mood. The blood in his heart suddenly turned to bitterness, and he became more and more frightened by the enemy's tricks.
Then he no longer wanted to fight. He turned his long spear in his hand and stabbed the horse in front of the other cart to death, then withdrew and retreated to the rear.
When the other soldiers who followed saw the general like this, they naturally did not dare to charge southward again, so they all retreated.
After returning to the front of the wall, Xue Guyan turned around and looked towards the south of the bridge. Seeing that the enemy did not take advantage of the situation to launch an attack, he couldn't help but secretly rejoice. It seemed that the parallel sand trucks had successfully blocked these thieves.
The powerful arrows, but also restricted their forward thrust.
"The thieves are cunning and cunning. I don't know what other plots they are hiding. Please inform the Great Sima of North Central City about the situation of the enemy here as soon as possible!"
If it's a battle with open swords and spears, and an upright battle, Xue Guyan has nothing to fear and dares to charge into any difficult and dangerous battle.
However, the thieves in this group are too cunning, and many of their methods are not conventional, and often cannot be solved by bravery alone, which inevitably makes Xue Guyan feel at a loss.
Therefore, despite common sense, he could not think of any other ways for the enemy to pose a threat to Guancheng, but he did not dare to be too confident. When the soldiers reported the enemy's situation to Beicheng to avoid encountering any emergencies, he hurriedly
It is difficult for him to deal with it on his own.
To the south of the river bridge, Li Tai came out from the rear formation. When he reached the front formation, he saw two armored soldiers being pierced through the body by a powerful crossbow. Another person's knees were pierced by the arrow and he fell to the ground and fainted.
He woke up, with a look of sadness on his face, and said in a deep voice: "Please transport the casualties to the rear first and prepare for the attack!"
He had previously seized hundreds of bed crossbows from Nancheng. When planning to continue the attack, he would not ignore this big killer weapon. However, he could only reduce the harm of bed crossbows as much as possible, but he could not completely eliminate them.
The battlefield is so cruel, the difference between life and death is often just a thin line, and it all depends on luck.
Except for Han Xiong and his subordinates, all the soldiers here are members of his family who have followed him for a long time. Even the Longyou athletes who have followed him for the shortest time have had the Battle of Jinyang to cultivate a tacit understanding and have long been used to it.
Absolute obedience to Li Tai's orders.
Even in the face of this situation where the enemy is strong and we are weak, and it is easy to defend but difficult to attack, when Li Tai decided to launch an attack to the north of Heqiao, these people had no doubts about it, and there was no need for Xiao Yi's passionate incitement.
.
The more this is the case, the more responsibility Li Tai has to lead the soldiers to create greater brilliant achievements and ensure their lives as much as possible. Of course, sacrifices are inevitable in this process, so let every sacrifice have greater meaning.
Meaning and value!
The sand truck in front was left on the bridge because the animal pulling the truck fell dead. The soldiers did not move forward to clear it and continue to move forward. Instead, they stopped at this section of the river bridge and dumped the wood transported from behind on the bridge deck.
Assembling and adjusting continuously, the sound of knocking could be heard far away in the night.
In front of Heyang Pass, Xue Guyan saw that the enemy army did not advance forward. Instead, there were constant banging sounds on the bridge. He was full of doubts in his heart. He even secretly guessed that the enemy army was planning to attack near Heyang Pass.
Build a temporary camp fortress on the river bridge to continue the attack on Heyang Pass?
Although this conjecture is somewhat absurd, it is not impossible considering that the thief has all kinds of tricks. While waiting, Xue Guyan ordered the crossbow on the city head to shoot several rounds at the thief army, but the effect was continuous.
Not even the first time.
After the bed crossbow is set on the city head, it is very cumbersome to move it, and the shooting path needs to be calibrated through sight lines and markers. It is dark now, and even with the thin moonlight, it is difficult to meet the requirements for the bed crossbow calibration, so this
The killing weapon is temporarily useless.
After Hulujin on the north bank learned of the enemy's situation, he did not go to Heyangguan City to supervise the battle in person. Instead, he stayed in Beizhong City to provide warning. However, he also sent a general with 2,000 troops to the south for reinforcements.
At one time, there were nearly ten thousand people inside and outside Zhongli City, including the civilian labor force. This city was originally located on a sandbank in the middle of the river, and was the smallest among the three cities in Heyang. With so many people stationed there, the inner and outer cities were immediately eliminated.
The open spaces outside the houses and tents were filled to the brim.
Seeing the soldiers waiting for battle in Guancheng and Fanghezhou, Xue Guyan's originally anxious mood regained his composure. No matter what other conspiracies and tricks the enemy had, what could really determine victory was absolute strength.
The garrison in Zhongli City alone was more than twice as powerful as the enemy, not to mention the tens of thousands of troops commanded by Hulu Jinsuo on the north bank! When it came to the intrigues and intrigues in the battle, Xue Guyan thought he was not as good as a thief general, but he had already fought
The decision was made to remain unchanged in response to all changes, but to attract the crowd to defend the city and wait until the sky is clear tomorrow before making a counterattack.
Suddenly, there were several strange noises in the night in the south, and soon there was a relatively clear plop of a heavy object entering the water, and an inconspicuous splash flashed on the water more than ten feet away from Guancheng.
Xue Guyan keenly captured this scene. Several thoughts flashed through his mind, and he soon realized: "The bandits are planning to attack the city with artillery carts!"
It was okay not to say this. As soon as he said it, the soldiers around him burst out laughing. Infected by this atmosphere, Xue Guyan couldn't help but laugh. Originally, he was worried that the enemy was brewing something sinister and cunning. attack method, but I didn’t expect it to be just an old routine like a trebuchet.
It's not that he looked down on the power of the trebuchet, but with the distance between the two sides and the restrictions on the river bridge deck, it would be difficult for the enemy to use such a powerful trebuchet, otherwise the soldiers might just pull the gun barrel and line up. not open.
Just looking at the impact point of the stone cannon, we know that the enemy's long-prepared artillery car has no range to threaten Guancheng. But if we zoom in closer, there are three crossbows on the city that have not yet been fired, which means that three This is a weak point, and the enemy has to test it with human lives, and also has to deal with the defenders who come forward to attack and kill.
The previous anxiety was due to the unknown danger, but after knowing the enemy's attack method, Xue Guyan immediately felt relieved. He didn't even bother to personally prepare for the war in front of Guancheng, but returned to Guancheng to rest. Instruct the generals here to kill and retreat if they see enemy troops approaching before they advance.
But when Xue Guyan just turned around and entered the wall, he heard the soldiers on the wall exclaiming in surprise. Before he could ask what happened, he heard a muffled sound coming from the side of the inner city. , and immediately there was a wailing and screaming, and the sound of people and horses running away in fright.
"what happened?"
Xue Guyan hurriedly rushed to the top of the city, pointed at a soldier commander who was staring into the night with his head raised, and asked quickly.
"Yes, it's a cannon stone. A big piece of cannon stone fell into the inner city..."
The soldier commander said with a trembling tone and a look of surprise on his face.
"Nonsense! How could it be gun rock..."
Xue Guyan glared and reprimanded. He was not blind. He had just seen the enemy's artillery stone fall on the river ten feet away from Zhongli City. How could it cross the Guancheng and hit the inner city again!
However, as soon as he finished speaking, there was another sharp buzzing sound in the sky. He looked up and saw a black shadow quickly passing through his sight, and then he heard another roar from the tower. The black shadow directly hit the eaves of the Guan Tower, causing the entire Guan Tower to tremble visibly. Immediately, a large piece of the building was hit by the tremendous force and collapsed.
"This, this...impossible, absolutely impossible! How could..."
Seeing this scene, Xue Guyan felt a bone-chilling chill pour down from the Heavenly Spirit Cap above his head, and then flowed throughout his limbs and bones, and his stiff body shivered uncontrollably.
Such a scene that went against common sense even Xue Guyan, the experienced and knowledgeable general who dared to fight against the thunder, was shocked. The other soldiers who witnessed it were even more panicked. Many people even immediately thought that it was... Is it the supernatural power of gods and Buddhas? There are many people shouting the Buddha's name, begging for protection, and retreating to the rear.
"Don't leave, don't leave! The bandit army must have used a cunning strategy. Follow me out of the city quickly to kill the evil spirits!"
Xue Guyan was worthy of being a strong man who could not be killed by lightning. When he saw the chaos of his troops running around, he felt bad in his heart. He rushed out of Guancheng with a loud roar and shouted at the soldiers arrayed in front of the pass to go straight to the bridge in the south. Go up and kill.
At this time, on the south side of the river bridge, the vehicle frame that was originally resting on the bridge was still there, but the river sand in the carriage was gone. Arriving at the enemy formation in the rear.
Each of these enemy soldiers was wearing heavy armor, and in their hands they were holding swords that looked like horse-cutting swords but had other long-edged swords. The sight of the formation made people feel inexplicably heart-pounding. Behind these enemy soldiers on the bridge, there were There are two tall trebuchets standing there, presumably from where the powerful cannon stones were fired.
But Xue Guyan had no time to take a closer look, the enemy soldiers were already coming towards him, and the long sword swung down violently. He was busy blocking with his arms, and soon he felt his shoulders suddenly sinking, the tiger's mouth was painful, and his long sword unexpectedly It was knocked out of his hand and hit the bridge.
"General, be careful!"
The soldiers nearby were quick-sighted and hurriedly dragged Xue Guyan, who had lost his weapon, back to the army formation. However, one soldier rushed too close and was disemboweled by the enemy. His bloody internal organs flowed out, and he fell to the ground and died immediately. .
There were also soldiers who brandished swords and spears in their hands and stabbed at the enemy soldiers, but the blades of the swords and spears could not break through the thick armor. Even though some enemy soldiers were hit hard and fell back into the formation, there were soon others inside. Filling the gap, the bronze-headed and iron-armed soldiers continued to line up the wall and kill them mercilessly!
Seeing how ferocious the enemy army was, Xue Guyan was also shocked. He held a sword and almost rushed into the formation to kill the enemy's formation, but all attempts were in vain.
If it were just a few ordinary heavy-armored infantry fighting, he would not be restrained, but the enemy troops were well-organized and coordinated tacitly, and the jumping, rushing, and killing coordination between him and his soldiers were all under this offensive. Becoming weak and weak, seeing that dozens of soldiers had died under the sword, Xue Guyan could only grit his teeth and lead the crowd to retreat temporarily.
However, just as they were retreating, two more loud bangs were heard from the enemy formations in the rear. The impact point of the huge artillery rocks was still at the previous position. The soldiers in the inner city camp had already avoided it. In addition to the larger pit on the ground, There were no new casualties.
However, the Guanlou, which had no way to escape, received another heavy blow. The entire Guanlou made a loud noise, the structure shook severely, and the entire roof of the first floor collapsed, as if it had been struck by thunder.
Although the Jinyang soldiers were very brave, not all of them were as brave as Xue Guyan and dared to fight the thunder. The two consecutive bombardments shocked their hearts greatly, fearing that the next thunder would fall. Above their heads, they all rushed out of the river island and fled north along the river bridge. People were constantly squeezed off the bridge, and were soon swept into the raging river.
When Xue Guyan led his troops back to Guancheng, most of the defenders on the wall had fled. Seeing this scene, even if he still had the will to persevere, he could not hold on any longer. He could only rush into Guanmen and follow the soldiers towards the gate. Flee north.