"Quick, come up and help defend the city. Ahem, hurry up. The officers and soldiers are evil-minded and ruthless. After the city is defeated, everyone's wives, children, and children, cough, cough, cough, will definitely suffer..." Before the laughter fell, Ye Qinglian's voice had already been uploaded on the horse road.
come over.
"Have you gathered the right people so soon?" Shi Dexi was surprised and happy. He strode through the smoke and went to personally greet the other party's return.
I saw over a thousand young brothers from the Red Lotus Sect, following Ye Qinglian and rushing onto the horse road. The group of cowards who were fleeing along the horse road towards the city were so embarrassed that they were all ashamed.
"Brothers, the officers and soldiers had evil intentions and got a monster to pretend to be the Holy Mother. The Holy Mother has boundless power, so she won't be blown up in the air!" Ye Qinglian had no time to report to Shi Dexi, turned her head, and continued to wave her arms and shout.
Her face was streaked black and white by the black smoke, and there were obvious scratches on the ends of her eyebrows. Her hair, which was usually clean and smooth, like a waterfall, was now covered with dirt, dirty and messy.
However, at this moment, the face she showed was more beautiful than any other face she usually put on deliberately. Moreover, it did not have the slightest aura of evil.
"Sure enough, I was born to be a saint. The leader does have a vision." Unexpectedly, when the morale of the army was shattered, Ye Qinglian could easily recruit so many followers. Shi Dexi secretly admired it in his heart.
Just as he was about to step forward and say a few words of praise, he saw Ye Qinglian suddenly turning his head towards him and asking loudly: "King Shifa, what are the officers and soldiers doing? Why did I hear the sound of something being chiseled?"
"The officers and soldiers are digging into the city wall!" Shi Dexi reported loudly without thinking. Only after he said the words, he realized that his status in the church was higher than that of the other party, and he should not answer the other party's questions so easily.
However, now that he had said it all, he no longer cared about the other party's rudeness. After a pause, he added with a bit of joy, "Li Jihe, the commander-in-chief of the Zhenrong Army, has a false name. He actually plans to drill through the city wall. Anhua City
The bottom part of the city wall is two and a half feet wide..."
"Quick, think of a way to stop them. They are either chipping away at the wall or preparing other killing moves. I have seen the fortress they collapsed, and there are traces of chisels on the ruins!" Ye Qinglian was anxious and waved her arms to interrupt.
.
After that, regardless of Shi Dexi's response, he bypassed the other party and got directly into the poisonous smoke.
It happened that this wave of poisonous smoke had been blown away by the wind. Looking through the smoke, she saw three weird-looking corridors erected close to the west wall of Anhua City. Under the corridors, there were hundreds of figures flashing faintly.
He moved and kept throwing the clods of earth hewed out of the city wall out of the corridor.
"I don't know what method was used to build these three corridors. Rolling stones and wood cannot break them, nor can they withstand such consumption!" Shi Dexi followed quickly, thinking that the other party had just worked hard to pull people for him, and lowered his voice.
Sound explanation.
"Then burn it!" Ye Qinglian was so anxious that her heart was burning, and she waved her arms and warned loudly.
"I threw a torch, but it didn't work! Unless you can find enough grease, pour it on first and then set it on fire!" Shi Dexi was very well-educated and suppressed his impatience as he continued to explain in a low voice.
Without preparation in advance, it would definitely be too late to go to people's homes to search for grease.
Ye Qinglian made a decisive decision, turned her head, and raised her arms and shouted at the young believers who were following her, "Whoever pulls the rope with me to fall down, and set fire to it together. If you have a manly spirit, just follow, and if you don't, don't force it!"
Having said that, he grabbed an iron chain with a nail bat from the top of the city, first tested whether the other end was firmly fixed, then took off the nail bat, held the iron chain with one hand and the nail bat with the other, and jumped down.
(Note: Nail beater is a kind of defensive facility. After being smashed down, it can be pulled back to the top of the city and used repeatedly.)
This came so suddenly that the other Red Lotus cultists on the top of the city had no time to catch up. And the soldiers of the Zhenrong Army who were cutting the wall under the city were almost unprepared.
As a result, Ye Qinglian landed firmly on the top of the "corridor" with her feet, and then jumped down again. The steel knife in her hand was as fast as lightning, and she chopped down two Suppressor soldiers who were lowering their heads to the ground.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack!" Some of the soldiers of the Suppressing Army in the corridor had to shout and turned around to fight. They used steel drills, long shovels, and weird-looking drill bits to stab Ye Qinglian randomly.
Ye Qinglian was outnumbered and jumped onto the roof of the corridor again. He tightened the iron chain with one hand and moved quickly with his feet diagonally on the surface of the city wall.
As if she was flying in the sky, she quickly ran for more than thirty steps. In the blink of an eye, she came to another corridor, jumped down, and raised the knife in her hand.
Two more brothers from the Suppression Army were injured and fell to the ground. The remaining brothers were disturbed and had to separate some people to resist with chisels and long shovels.
At this moment, more young men from the Red Lotus Sect followed Ye Qinglian's example, holding on to ropes or chains, and jumped down from the top of the city. Then, from different directions and angles, they attacked the Zhenrong Army in the corridor.
The soldiers launched a desperate counterattack.
"Don't go out, expose the steel to the outside, and form a formation to fight!" At the critical moment, Zhang Huan was experienced and shouted decisively, providing everyone with countermeasures.
The officers and soldiers of the Zhenrong Army who were caught off guard adjusted their tactics one after another. Instead of going out of the corridor to actively fight, they hid under the corridor and used the steel drills originally used to dig out the city walls, the tomb-robbing shovels, and the hand-cranked big guns.
The drill bit should always face outward.
In the blink of an eye, the entire team, along with the simple corridor above their heads, turned into a hedgehog with a shell.
At this time, it was no longer convenient for the young men of the Red Lotus Sect to make a sneak attack, so they surrounded the corridor and used weapons to poke around.
How could Li Jihe, who was raiding the formation not far away, tolerate the Red Lotus cultists sneak attack on his brothers? After recovering from the shock, he immediately dispatched five thousand soldiers and horses to swarm forward.
Ye Qinglian was outnumbered and did not want the young men of the Red Lotus to die in vain. He shouted loudly and urged everyone to jump to the top of the corridor, pulling on the iron chains and ropes, and climbing up quickly.
Admiring her courage and determination, Shi Dexi took the initiative to lead the rest of the brothers to pull the chains and ropes on the top of the city. Before the troops of the Zhenrong Army rushed to the city, he killed Ye Qinglian and as many young men from the Red Lotus Religion as possible.
Pulled back to the city.
Immediately, the Red Lotus cultists on the top of the city used bows, arrows and crossbows to shoot fiercely at the soldiers and horses of the Suppression Army below the city. The soldiers and horses of the Suppression Army under the city no longer retreated. They raised their horn bows and hard crossbows and fired with all their strength.
Fight back.
The Red Lotus Sect had fewer people guarding the city, and the density of feather arrows it shot was far less than that of the Suppressing Army. However, it took advantage of being on top of the city, and there were battlements to hide in. The Suppressing Army, on the other hand, relied on its large number of people to shoot feather arrows.
The arrows are like hailstones.
Both sides went back and forth, each suffering casualties. But overall, the casualties of the defending side were far lower than those of the attacking side.
"Is the ballista ready? When it's ready, let me aim it at the top of the city and fire in a round!" Li Jihe couldn't help but gritted his teeth and asked the soldiers around him.
Immediately some soldiers trotted to urge them, and not long after, the crossbow carts carried by the Zhenrong Army were dispatched collectively again. From a distance of more than 200 steps, long crossbows with gunpowder boxes tied to them were fired at the city head in turn.
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" Explosions came one after another, and in the blink of an eye, the west wall of Anhua City was enveloped in poisonous mist again. The Red Lotus cultists on the top of the city were so smoked that they could not open their eyes.
The arrows shot towards the city suddenly became sparse.
"Okay, divide into three groups, shoot in turn, don't let the smoke stop!" Li Jihe nodded with satisfaction and continued to give instructions.
As a veteran who has experienced hundreds of battles, he has long seen that the ballistae's momentum is amazing, but its actual lethality is very limited.
However, at this moment, the goal he needs to achieve is not to destroy the enemy army, but to prevent the enemy army from interfering with his son and his beloved generals in digging the city wall.
Therefore, there is no need to consider the killing effect. As long as the smoke is always billowing from the top of the city, the goal will be achieved.
It was certainly impossible to keep others in the dark for a long time with this kind of thinking. It didn't take more than a quarter of an hour for Shi Dexi and Ye Qinglian to figure out Li Jihe's conspiracy.
Neither of them had the character to sit still and wait for death. They immediately tried every means to organize men to launch a counterattack despite the thick smoke. They even personally pulled the ropes many times and led the warriors from the Red Lotus to volley down in an attempt to knock down Zhenrong who was digging into the city.
The officers and soldiers were once again caught off guard.
However, under Li Jihe's full response, all the methods used by Shi Dexi and Ye Qinglian were far from the expected results. On the contrary, many believers were injured, and the blood directly dyed the corridor under the city red.
.
"Everyone, keep digging, don't be distracted. The faster you dig, the fewer brothers will be injured or killed outside!" Under the corridor, Han Qing personally held a drill bit more than seven feet long with thick arms and a crank handle at the end.
He pressed firmly against the wall closest to him.
Four carefully selected warriors from the Suppressing Army worked together to turn the handle.
"Chi chi chi, chi chi chi, chi chi chi, chi chi chi." The friction sounds came one after another, and soon the drill pipe entered the city wall more than five feet deep. Dark yellow soil gurgled down the tail of the drill pipe like running water.
"Cut, dig along this hole, and expand it until it is as thick as a human leg!" He pulled out the drill bit with both hands, panting and commanded, and then stabilized the drill bit again three feet away from the drilled hole.
Zhang Huan led two brothers, grabbed a chisel and a hammer, and quickly thickened the round hole he had just drilled in the city wall. The other four carefully selected warriors from the Suppressing Army took over from the previous group.
Brother, step forward and turn the crank handle of the drill pipe again.
Another arm-thick drill hole quickly appeared. Han Qing took a deep breath, handed the drill hole to Zhang Huan, and rushed to the next drilling point again.
Beside him, dozens of drill holes were densely packed and arranged in three rows. From a distance, it looked like a huge honeycomb.
Time passed by in a hurry amidst explosions and shouts of death.
About an hour later, hundreds of holes were drilled into the section of the city wall facing the left camp of the Zhenrong Army forward. Each hole was drilled to the thickness of a human leg, deep and long.
Han Qing raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his face, then grabbed a cloth bag from the ground that was well protected by his brothers, and stuffed the bag with the black powder inside into the door facing him.
drilling.
Taking another deep breath, he filled the hole again with soil, leaving a long lead wire outside.
Zhang Huan and others imitated his example and followed suit. Soon, gunpowder packets were stuffed into different drill holes one after another.
All the drilled holes were blocked by the soil. Lead wires were pulled out from all the drilled holes. Every ten leads were twisted into one, extended outward, and finally bundled together again into a huge arm-thick
medicine twist,
"Contact Li Zhaoliang and Li Zhaoxun. Regardless of whether they are ready or not, immediately retreat in groups! Only the warriors who started the fire will be left behind!" Han Qing took another deep breath and ordered loudly.
"Woo woo, woo woo, woo woo --" the horn sounded, close to the city wall, and quickly spread to the ears of everyone in the city.
Li Jihe, the commander of the Zhenrong Army, immediately sent out archers to provide cover. At a very small cost, most of the brothers from the three battalions were able to withdraw to their own positions.
"Blow the trumpet, order the warriors to light fire and leave quickly!" Han Qing also retreated a hundred steps away from the city wall under the protection of ten shield bearers. Looking back at the city head still shrouded in thick smoke, he said hoarsely
Issue an order.
"Woo, woo, woo..." The ordering soldier used the horn to send out his order.
Zhang Huan, who stayed under the corridor facing him, and the dead soldiers of the Suppressing Army who stayed under the other two corridors, heard the horn sound, immediately lit the medicine, then dropped the fire discount and ran out.
Arrows kept shooting down from the top of the city, sparsely hitting the sides and behind Zhang Huan and others. However, they did not even try to hide. Even if they were hit by arrows, they just tried their best to move away.
city wall.
The medicine burned silently, and then hundreds of dancing flames spread out.
The flames approached the city wall at a speed visible to the naked eye, penetrated into the wall, and disappeared.
There was no response at first, which made everyone in the Zhenrong army feel nervous.
However, in the next moment, thunderous explosions sounded continuously from the base of the city wall seven feet above the ground.
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"
…
It lasted only a short time, just two or three breaths, but it felt like it was endless.
Amidst the endless explosions, the walls of Anhua City began to fall to the ground. As they fell, they trembled, swayed, and swayed back and forth like a patient.
In the end, it slowly collapsed at a slow speed visible to the naked eye, like a farmhouse soaked by floods, and collapsed into three dark yellow ruins. (Note: Multi-point blasting. The actual operation is far more complicated than this.
This is an exaggeration by the novelist, and experts do not need to take it seriously.)
