At noon, the offensives of the Long Army and the Shu Army gradually weakened. Lai She wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with lingering fear: "Your Majesty, it seems that the enemy is about to withdraw, right?"
This is not the first time that the Long Army and the Shu Army have attacked the city. The previous few times, either there was heavy thunder and little rain, or there were three axes with weak stamina. In Lai She's opinion, today's enemy attack should be similar.
Same as before.
Liu Xiu slowly shook his head and said faintly: "The battle of Lueyang has been dragging on for so long. I think Wei Xiao is going to take action this time!" Occupying Lueyang is like putting a thorn in Wei Xiao's heart.
Holding a nail.
At the beginning, Wei Xiao was not in a hurry, hoping to use the Shu army as the vanguard to consume his own troops. However, the Shu army did not take the bait, and both sides continued to waste their troops.
Now, it is estimated that Wei Xiao really couldn't sit still anymore, no longer held back, and started to attack with all his strength.
And the Long Army's exertion will inevitably lead to the Shu Army's exertion. Otherwise, let alone Li Yu, Tian Yan would not be able to explain, and even Gongsun Shu would not be able to explain.
Liu Xiu said firmly: "In the afternoon, the enemy's offensive will probably be even more fierce!"
Lai She's expression changed and he couldn't help but shrink his neck. In his opinion, the enemy's offensive in the morning was already fierce enough. If it was more fierce in the afternoon than in the morning, could our side really be able to defend Lueyang?
Liu Xiu turned to look at Lai She, smiled at him, and said, "Don't worry, doctor Lai. No matter how fierce the enemy's offensive is, it will be difficult to conquer Lueyang!"
An excellent commander must not only be able to run an army, but also be able to fight. When in adversity, he must also play a role in stabilizing the morale of the army. Regarding the Battle of Lueyang, Liu Xiu did not have much confidence, but he
It doesn't show on the face.
His calmness and composure made civilian officials like Lai She feel like they had taken a reassurance, and it played a great role in stabilizing the military morale of the entire army.
Liu Xiu thought for a moment and said: "Secondly, send more troops to the south city and the north city... In addition, we must send more troops to the east city. Don't be careless!"
When Yao Qi heard this, he bowed his hands and saluted, saying, "Yes! Your Majesty!"
Lai She asked: "Your Majesty, do you think the enemy might attack Nancheng, Beicheng and Dongcheng?"
"It's not impossible. It's always right to be careful."
Even though Wei Xiao was not very good at fighting, the generals under his command were not in vain. Even Li Yu and Tian Yan, who were sent to Longdi by Gongsun Shu, were generals who were good at using troops. Liu Xiu had to be careful.
Be cautious in case something unexpected happens.
Seeing that the discussion between Liu Xiu and the surrounding generals had come to an end, Li Chi finally found a chance to speak and said: "Your Majesty, it's already noon, let's eat first!"
Liu Xiu turned around and asked with a smile: "Li Chi, did you bring food over?"
Li Chi responded quickly: "The common people made a bucket of lard rice, but I don't know if it will suit His Majesty's taste!" As he spoke, he winked at the little girl on the side.
Li Chunyue quickly walked to a wooden barrel and carried it over with difficulty.
Liu Xiu stepped forward and happily opened the lid of the wooden barrel. A cloud of hot steam came out, and the smell of meat was tangy. When the hot steam dissipated, he took a closer look and realized, well, this is a large barrel of white rice.
Perhaps because of the excess oil, the plump rice grains are all oily, one by one, like pearls.
Just looking at it made his mouth water and his appetite whet his appetite. Liu Xiu asked Luo You to get a bowl, fill it with a spoon, picked up the chopsticks, took two bites, his eyes lit up, and he asked with a smile: "What is this bucket of lard rice?"
Who did it?"
Li Chi said with a slightly red face: "It was made by ordinary people."
Liu Xiu smiled and said, "Can you cook?" Even though he was a concubine, he was still the son of the Li family, and cooking seemed to have nothing to do with him.
Li Chi's face turned redder when he heard this. Li Chunyue said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Ninth Brother has always been a glutton, and what others cook is not to his liking. Over time, Ninth Brother himself has developed good cooking skills."
Liu Xiu raised his head and smiled, calling to everyone around him, and said: "Everyone, come and have a try. Mr. Li's cooking skills are really good, comparable to those of the imperial chef!"
Lai She, Yao Qi, Ji Zun, Long Yuan and others gathered around and each took a spoonful. After only one bite, people couldn't stop. After two or three times, they ate the pork rice in the bowl.
All gone.
Although the lard rice made by Li Chi was delicious, they did not dare to eat more. If they ate it with open stomachs, it is estimated that Liu Xiu would not be able to do anything with this bucket of lard rice.
Liu Xiu stared at the empty bowls and the half-bucket of rice left. He smiled and said, "What are you doing? Eat!"
As he spoke, he first poured a spoonful for himself. Seeing Liu Xiu start to move, everyone stopped being polite and picked up the spoon and poured rice into the bowl.
Before I had even had two bites of rice, the Long and Shu armies attacked again.
Just like in the morning, before the soldiers advanced, they first used trebuchets to conduct long-range attacks. The enemy threw more trebuchets in the afternoon than in the morning. The stones hit the city wall, and the loud rumbling noise was heard endlessly.
Inside the city gate tower, the ground continued to tremble, and dust was scattered overhead from time to time.
Yao Qi covered the rice bowl in his hand with his big cloak, turned his head and looked outside, and said angrily: "These thieves won't stop even at noon, and they won't let anyone eat!"
After finally waiting for the trebuchet attack to end, the phalanx of the Long Army and Shu Army once again advanced towards Lueyang City.
Liu Xiu and others finished their bowls of rice as quickly as possible, then looked at the enemy troops outside the city attentively and entered a state of preparation for war.
As Liu Xiu expected, the offensives of the Long and Shu armies in the afternoon were far stronger than those in the morning. Except for the 20,000 troops in the retreating formation of the 80,000-strong army, all the remaining 60,000 troops had been sent to the battlefield.
As the enemy army entered the shooting range, arrows rained down from the top of Lueyang City. The Long Army and Shu Army braved the rain of arrows and advanced to the bottom of the city, set up ladders, and attacked upward.
At the same time, the archery tower also advanced to the city wall, and the archers on the archery tower fired arrows at the city wall.
Some arrows even shot into the city gate tower. Liu Xiu, who was standing in front of the window, suddenly raised his hand and caught an arrow that flew into the window. He squeezed it with both hands, and the arrow broke.
He threw it aside.
At this moment, a soldier ran up to the city gate tower, came to Liu Xiu, knelt down on one knee, held an arrow in both hands, and said: "Your Majesty, this was just shot up from the city.
arrow!"
Liu Xiu and others turned around and saw that the arrow held by the soldier had a roll of cloth wrapped around the arrow shaft and no arrowhead. Obviously, this arrow was not used to hurt people, but to hurt people.
messenger.
He picked up the arrow, looked at it carefully, then took the strip of cloth wrapped around it and unfolded it. It was densely packed with small characters written by Wang Zun.
Wang Zun introduced the situation in Weixiao to Liu Xiu in detail. At present, the large baggage from the rear has been transported to the camp, including hundreds of trebuchets, fifty arrow towers, twenty rush vehicles, etc.
In addition, Du Ling also organized a crossbow battalion for Kaixiao, with a total of 2,500 people. All of them were extremely skilled. They were also equipped with repeated crossbows and were equipped with traps and messages, making them extremely difficult to deal with.
At the end of the letter, Wang Zun told Liu Xiu that he had nearly a thousand confidants. If His Majesty needed it, he could fly a red flag as an order. He led his troops to defect before the battle, killing Wei Xiao by surprise.
After reading this letter from Wang Zun, Liu Xiu fell into deep thought.
If Wang Zun switches sides in the battle, he may not be able to kill Wei Xiao, but Wang Zun himself will be involved. After all, Wang Zun only has a thousand confidants, and with this small number of people, it is basically impossible to kill Wei Xiao.
After Lai She and others read Wang Zun's letter, they all frowned. Yao Qi whispered: "With a thousand people, it is too difficult to kill Wei Xiao, but disrupting the enemy's offensive will have a big impact."
hope."
"But in this way, Wang Zun's identity will be exposed!" Lai She shook his head and said.
Liu Xiu hummed, agreeing with Lai She's words, and said: "At present, it is indeed more beneficial for us for Wang Zun to stay with Kai Xiao. Therefore, there is really no need to expose Wang Zun's identity unless it is absolutely necessary."
While they were talking, a soldier hurried into the city gate tower and said urgently: "Your Majesty, the East City is under attack! The East City defenders will be unable to withstand it!"
Hearing this, the expressions of everyone present changed. Liu Xiu asked: "How many enemy troops are there in the sneak attack on Dongcheng?"
The soldier replied urgently: "There are more than two thousand people. However, the enemy troops are all good at using crossbows, and the crossbows are weird. They can fire continuously without loading arrows!"
Is it Liannu?! Liu Xiu's eyes glanced at Wang Zun's letter subconsciously. Could it be that the one who attacked Dongcheng was the Jinu camp mentioned by Wang Zun?
Thinking of this, he said in a deep voice: "Next time, Di Sun, you two will stay in the west city. Long Yuan and Xu Ying, please follow me to the east city to support!"
"Here!" Everyone responded in unison.
Yao Qi said worriedly: "Your Majesty, bring more troops and horses!"
Liu Xiu waved his hand, Xicheng was the direction where the enemy's main attack was, and it was really impossible to mobilize more troops. He took Luo You, Long Yuan, Xu Ying and others, got off the city gate tower, and rode straight to Lueyang.
Dongcheng.
By the time Liu Xiu and his party arrived at the east city, the sneak attack enemy troops had already reached the top of the city and were engaging in a melee with a large number of soldiers on the city wall.
Upon seeing this, Liu Xiu dismounted from his horse, drew out the Chixiao Sword, and picked up a shield under the city wall.
He held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, and ran toward the top of the city.
Long Yuan and others also followed Liu Xiu's example, picked up their shields one after another, and followed closely. Liu Xiu climbed onto the city wall, and as soon as he came up, a Long Army soldier came with a sword. The ring-head sword made a harsh whistling sound, and fiercely
Chopping to the top of Liu Xiu's head.
Liu Xiu held up his shield to parry, and with a clang, his sword hit the iron shield, shooting out a ball of sparks. Liu Xiu put down his shield and stabbed out with his sword. The soldier was unable to dodge and was pierced through the chest by the sword.
.
Another Long Army soldier nearby raised his crossbow machine and fired a crossbow arrow at Liu Xiu.
Liu Xiu reacted quickly, waving his shield to block, and with a bang, the crossbow arrow hit the shield and bounced to the ground. Just as Liu Xiu was about to rush forward, the opponent pulled the trigger on the crossbow, and then shot another arrow.
This arrow came, even Liu Xiu was surprised. He didn't see the opponent hit the arrow on the crossbow at all. He only saw that after the opponent shot an arrow, he pulled something that looked like a wrench on the crossbow, and then
The crossbow can fire arrows again.
For Liu Xiu, he had never seen this type of repeating crossbow before. Without time to think about it, he raised his shield and blocked the arrow again. The soldier moved the trigger for the second time, and again
Shoot the third arrow at Liu Xiu.
Liu Xiu still blocked with his shield. He took a step forward, and the opponent took a step back. At the same time, he moved the trigger and fired arrows at Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu secretly counted in his mind, and the opponent actually shot six crossbow arrows at him in succession.
Seeing that the opponent was getting closer and closer to him, the soldier suddenly raised his arm, and two crossbow arrows shot out from his cuffs. Liu Xiu quickly tilted his head to the side, and whoosh, two crossbow arrows whizzed in his ears.
Pass.
He chased the soldier close to him, swiped his sword and slashed towards the opponent's neck.
The soldier reacted quickly and rolled backwards to avoid Liu Xiu's sharp attack. He squatted on the ground, lowered his head sharply, and fired three more crossbows on his back.
The distance between the two sides was too close, and Liu Xiu raised his shield almost instinctively.
Ding ding ding, all three crossbow arrows were nailed to the shield. Liu Xiu hurriedly swung his sword outward, and the blade swept across the soldier's neck, tearing a large gash out of his throat.
The soldier fell on his back with blood spurting from his neck. Liu Xiu subconsciously lowered his head to check.
There is a crossbow hidden in the soldier's sleeve, and behind it, there is a fan-shaped crossbow, on which you can see the groove for loading arrows. The fan-shaped crossbow is connected to a rope and hung on the soldier's waist. When used,
Just pull the rope.
What an exquisite design! Liu Xiu couldn't help but praise it secretly in his heart.