Under the leadership of Liu Xiu and Wan Xiu, the soldiers of the Han army and the soldiers of Deng Zhong's army who attacked the city started a face-to-face fight.
The battle was bloody and brutal. The soldiers in the front row fell in groups, and the soldiers in the back row rushed forward in groups to kill.
In the next few hours of fighting, Deng Zhong's army attacked the city three times in a row, but was defeated by the Han army three times in a row.
At this point in the battle, both sides had no way out and were fighting with all their strength. Even Deng Zhong reached the south bank of the moat. The guards formed a shield formation in front of him. He stood behind the shield formation. Supervise the battle personally.
Looking at his own soldiers who were repelled again, Deng Zhong tugged at his collar and shouted angrily: "No retreat is allowed, no one is allowed to retreat, even if we fight to the death of one soldier, we must take Wancheng for me." !”
Under Deng Zhong's order, the soldiers began their fourth storm.
This time, even the 5,000 soldiers who were plundering the formation pushed forward and participated in the siege. Under the city wall of Wancheng, corpses were piled high on top of each other. The walls were built so high that no water could be seen in the moat. , almost all of them corpses.
Deng Zhongjun attacked with all his strength, and the offensive was fierce. Many soldiers took off their armor and uniforms, went into battle shirtless, and climbed up the ladder like crazy.
It has to be said that the Nanyang Army's combat power and fighting will are indeed very strong. If it were another army, it would have withdrawn long ago after fighting to this extent, but the Nanyang Army was able to grit its teeth and persevere.
The total number of Han troops stationed in the south city of Wancheng was less than 5,000. By now, their strength had been reduced sharply to about 2,000. Facing the wolf-like and tiger-like Deng Zhongjun, the Han troops really could not hold on any longer.
Wan Xiu was already covered in blood from the battle, and the spear in his hand had turned into a bloody spear. Seeing the enemy attacking the city again, Wan Xiu cheered up, raised his spear and charged forward again.
As he walked past, Wan Xiu picked out several enemy soldiers with his spear. When he came to a densely populated area of enemy soldiers, he shouted loudly and swept away with his spear.
The two enemy soldiers were unable to block, their necks were cut open by the sharp edge of the spear, and they fell to the ground. The soldiers behind them rushed towards Wan Xiu.
Wan Xiu fought with a gun and fought in a melee with many enemy soldiers who rushed up.
At this time, Wan Xiu was already at the end of his strength. Facing the densely packed enemy troops around him, he was much slower in launching and repelling his moves. He just didn't pay attention for a moment, and was severely slashed by the enemy's sword in the back.
Fortunately, he had armor on his body, which could remove most of the damage, but even so, there was still a bloody gash on his back.
Wan Xiu groaned, shot back, and slammed back with the tail of the gun. Bang! The tail of the gun hit the enemy soldier's face, and the latter screamed and retreated on his back.
He turned around and fired another shot, slamming it down hard and smashing the enemy soldier's head into pieces.
Countless enemies rushed towards his side, spears thrust towards Wan Xiu's body. Wan Xiu fell to the ground, rolled sideways, and sharp spears stabbed the ground one after another, bursting out. Groups of sparks appeared.
Taking advantage of Wan Xiu's fall to the ground, more enemy troops rushed forward, raising their spears and trying to stab Wan Xiu.
At this time, Liu Xiu rushed in, like a whirlwind, rushing in front of Wan Xiu. At the same time, he swung the Chixiao sword and cut off the spears that were thrust towards him.
Immediately afterwards, he fired several more swords to force the nearby enemy troops back. Then he picked up Wan Xiu from the ground and retreated backwards.
When the enemy was about to attack again, they were resisted by Long Yuan, Long Zhun, Long Bo and other Han soldiers. Liu Xiu pulled Wan Xiu and retreated to a place where there were no enemy troops around, and then stopped.
He turned around and saw the bloody wound on Wan Xiu's back. His heart trembled and he said urgently: "Jun You, it's enough for me to be here. Go and bandage the wound!"
Wan Xiu, on the other hand, was nonchalant and breathed heavily: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, this minor injury is nothing to me, and I can still fight the enemy again!"
"Jun You!" Liu Xiu grabbed his arm tightly and said in a deep voice, "Go and bandage the wound immediately!"
Wan Xiu took a few more breaths and said urgently: "Your Majesty, Wei Chen just saw Deng Zhong on the other side of the moat. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Wei Chen plans to lead a team of soldiers and horses to fight out of the city!"
Liu Xiu really didn't pay attention to the other side of the moat. Hearing Wan Xiu's words, his heart suddenly moved. He thought quickly and said: "I will sneak into the enemy army first and find a way to get close to Deng Zhong. Wan Xiu can stay on top of the city." , see the chaos on the other side, then lead your troops to fight out!"
"Your Majesty, this is too dangerous!" Wan Xiu's expression suddenly changed.
Liu Xiu said: "Don't worry, I'm sure! The top priority is to repel the enemy in front of us first!"
As he spoke, he called over two Han soldiers and asked them to help Wan Xiu bandage his wounds. Liu Xiu held his sword and continued to fight against the enemy troops who had attacked the city wall.
Deng Zhong's army had too many people, and he managed to kill some of the enemy troops who attacked the city, but then the number of enemy troops who attacked the city was even greater. Seeing that his side could no longer hold up, Liu Xiu could only order , poured out all the fire oil stored on the city, and used fire attack again.
The first fire attack had already consumed a lot of kerosene, and now there was not much kerosene left on the city. The scale of the Han army's fire attack was far less than the first time.
But even so, it still caused a large number of casualties to Deng Zhong's army, and also made the siege troops seem to have insufficient stamina.
Taking this opportunity, Liu Xiu led the Han soldiers on the city to launch a full-scale counterattack against Deng Zhong's army who had attacked the city.
Deng Zhong's army was demoralized by the second fire attack by the Han army, and the soldiers who joined the follow-up could not keep up. Deng Zhong's army on the top of the city finally couldn't hold on any longer, and a large number of soldiers ran down the ladder.
Liu Xiu held his sword and chopped down several enemy soldiers in front of him, and then greeted Long Yuan and others not far away: "Long Yuan!"
Upon hearing Liu Xiu's call, Long Yuan, Long Zhun, and Long Bo retreated and came to Liu Xiu's side.
Liu Xiu didn't say anything. He grabbed the corpse of a soldier of Deng Zhong's army and ran quickly to the city gate tower. Long Yuan and the other three were stunned for a moment, and then they each grabbed the corpse of an enemy soldier and followed closely. Later.
After they entered the city gate tower, Liu Xiu immediately took off his coat without saying a word, then took off the corpse's clothes and put them on himself. Long Yuan and the other three also followed suit and replaced them with Deng Zhongjun as quickly as possible. military uniform.
After changing his clothes, Liu Xiu grabbed the blood on the body, smeared it on his face and arms, and said: "Let's follow the retreating enemy troops to the other side of the moat and find a way to kill Deng Zhong!"
Long Yuan and the three of them nodded in agreement without saying a word.
Liu Xiu and the other three changed into Deng Zhongjun's military uniforms, smeared their faces, necks, and arms with blood, and then ran out of the city gate tower.
As soon as they came out, the nearby Han troops were stunned, and then a large number of Han troops swarmed over.
When Liu Xiu and Long Yuan saw this, they turned around and ran away. Along the way, the Han troops they met stabbed at each other with spears and swords. Liu Xiu and others hid and blocked when they could, without fighting back at all.
.
When the four of them ran into the crowd of Deng Zhongjun, their bodies were more or less slashed with blood. At this time, the soldiers of Deng Zhongjun were all running down the ladder to the city in a hurry, without any thought at all.
The man noticed that four strangers suddenly walked into his crowd.
Long Yuan used all his strength to push aside the crowd in front and help Liu Xiu squeeze out a passage.
The soldiers of Deng Zhong's army who were staggered to both sides were all yelling and cursing. Long Yuan successfully squeezed in front of the arrow stack and turned sideways. Liu Xiu jumped onto the arrow stack with a lunge.
Before he could step down the ladder, he heard several crossbow arrows flying towards him.
Liu Xiu reacted quickly. He lowered his body, squatted on the arrow stack, and curled up into a ball. The two soldiers of Deng Zhong's army next to him were unable to dodge, and the crossbow arrows fired hit them in the chest.
The two men both screamed and fell from the arrow stack at the top of the city, falling into the pile of corpses outside the city. Liu Xiu did not dare to delay, and climbed down quickly along the ladder. Some soldiers were frantically trying to climb up.
When he got on the arrow stack, he was kicked far away by Long Yuan. He pulled Long Zhun and Long Bu and pushed them onto the arrow stack first, and then jumped down himself.
The three of them followed Liu Xiu and climbed down the city wall along the ladder.
On the top of the city, the corpses of soldiers from both sides were strewn about, with rivers of blood flowing. The scene was tragic enough, but under the city wall, it was like a hell on earth. The corpses of Deng Zhongjun were piled up one on top of another, so high that there were many corpses.
It had been scorched by fire, and the air was filled with the smell of blood and burning, which was disgusting.
Liu Xiu and Long Yuan suppressed their nausea and ran forward one foot at a time among the corpses. When they got close to the moat, the four of them found a ladder that was erected at random and headed towards the other side.
Across the moat.
Seeing that his fourth attack was repelled by the Han army, Deng finally took off his helmet, holding the hilt of the sword under his ribs in one hand and a sweat towel in the other, wiping his forehead constantly.
Sweat on.
A general came to Deng Zhong and said cautiously: "General, our army has suffered too many casualties in this battle. It is better to withdraw temporarily!"
Deng Zhi glared at him fiercely and said angrily: "We have already paid so many casualties. If we return without success, wouldn't all the soldiers who died in battle have died in vain? Today, our army will attack Wancheng no matter what!"
"
The general who spoke lowered his head, while the surrounding generals looked at each other in silence. The 30,000 soldiers on our side have suffered more than 15,000 casualties so far. The price paid to capture Wancheng was too high.
too big.
They did not know that the real purpose of Deng Zhong's attack on Wancheng was not Wancheng itself, but Yin Lihua and Xu Xiling inside the city.
If we can control Yin Lihua and Xu Xiling in our own hands, we will have a great initiative in Luoyang and have enough capital to contain the Luoyang court.
Therefore, in Deng Zhong's view, as long as we can capture Wancheng, we can pay any price. Even if all 30,000 soldiers are finally exhausted, as long as we can break through Wancheng and successfully capture Yin Lihua and Xu Xiling, it will be worth it.
He looked around at the generals present and cheered: "Now, the enemy has consumed a lot of kerosene. I don't think there is still kerosene available in the city. In the next battle, the enemy will be unable to resist our onslaught!"
No one knows whether there are still fire oil reserves in Wancheng City, but one thing everyone present can see is that the scale of the defender's second fire attack was indeed much smaller than the first.
Let's say that Liu Xiu and others mingled with Deng Zhong's soldiers and fled to the other side of the moat, hiding behind the shield array. Liu Xiu squinted his eyes and looked around, and soon he found the location of Deng Zhong.
At Deng Zhong's place, the outer circle was full of armored guards, and the inner circle was full of military generals. The one surrounded by people holding the moon in their arms must be the general Deng Zhong.
After Liu Xiu looked at it, he winked at Long Yuan and the others, and they quietly approached without leaving any trace.
Deng was always the commander-in-chief of the entire army, and he was surrounded by armored guards. As soon as Liu Xiu and others approached, they were blocked by nearby guards.
The guards looked at them with a gloomy face. When they saw that Liu Xiu and others were all covered in blood, and had obviously retreated from the front line, their expressions softened slightly, and they raised their heads and said, "You are not allowed to come here.