(2-in-1) Although this fierce long-distance bombardment only lasted less than half an hour, its intensity was staggering. The smoke and dust on the top of the city covered the sky and spread throughout the city under the night wind.
A patch of sky covered the bright moon in the sky. This was originally the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time to look at the moon and express feelings of family reunion, but inside and outside Yingtian Mansion, it was a bloody night of killing.
In just half an hour, the number of casualties at the top of the city reached a thousand. There were also casualties among the officers and soldiers below the city. The damage caused by the crossbow attack on the catapult spread to the surrounding operators. Dozens of officers and soldiers were killed by the collapsed catapult, and another hundred
Many people were injured.
But all this is just the prelude to this war. The people below the city will not be complacent because of the current results, and the people at the top of the city will not be upset and frightened by these casualties, because they know that the real war has not yet begun. All the previous
Everything is just a small foreplay. The real drama is the subsequent hand-to-hand combat of the siege, which is the key to success or failure in the end.
The catapult bombing was over, but the rumble of the war drums was beating loudly. Ten thousand Forbidden troops spread out their formation, like a flood that burst a dike, rushing towards the city.
Although the siege was ineffective, Guo Xu's leadership ability cannot be denied. His personal military career and extensive reading of ancient war art gave Guo Xu the initial ability to command troops. Even if Guo Mian seizes the opportunity, he urgently needs to attack at this moment.
Under the delicate fragrance of Xia Yingtian, Guo Xu still kept a clear head. He did not just order all the soldiers and horses to go out in full force, but divided the 30,000 siege troops into three echelons.
Each of these three echelons has ten thousand people, and they are arranged in a skirmish formation. In terms of the structure of the troops, Guo Xu has also made arrangements. The first wave of ten thousand troops is mainly composed of sword and shield soldiers and archers, mixed with
Two thousand siege squads were responsible for towing thirty sky carriages. The sword and shield soldiers set up large shields in front to resist the inevitable surging bow and arrow attacks at the top of the city. They covered the four thousand archers and arrived within 60 steps of the city, allowing the archers to
It can shoot arrows at the top of the city to suppress it. With the cover of the archers, the cloud car can approach the city wall and launch an siege. The sword and shield soldiers will become the main force of the attackers who climb the city from the cloud car after the cloud car opens the passage to the city.
.
This is a team of ten thousand people who cooperate with each other to cover and cooperate with each other. Guo Xu has mastered the basic leadership routine of matching arms and cooperating with each other, which is much better than many generals who only know how to attack wildly and randomly.
As for the second echelon at the rear, they launched a more rapid second wave of attacks after the front team launched the siege. The second echelon was basically the main siege force equipped only with weapons and simple ladders. Once the first echelon
The echelons and the soldiers and horses at the top of the city formed an anxious situation, and there was no way to stop the arrival of the traditional ladder siege troops. As long as hundreds of ladders were hung on the edge of the city wall, it would be a nightmare for the defenders at the top of the city.
The third echelon is a fresh force. When too many soldiers and horses are killed in battle, the siege is exhausted, and the number of people is insufficient, they can fill the gap and maintain the intensity of the siege.
In fact, there are still nearly 9,000 Chinese soldiers and horses in the rear, led by Guo Xu himself. Since Guo Xu has given the order to fight until every soldier is killed, if the battle at the front fails, Guo Xu will personally lead these 9,000 soldiers and horses.
Launch the final attack. Of course, if it reaches that point, Guo Xu has actually failed. After using up 50,000 troops, even if he takes Yingtian Mansion, it will be a defeat.
In short, Guo Xu is betting everything in his hands now. He must win Yingtian. Even a miserable victory is much better than returning home in defeat. He has no other choice.
Amidst the rumbling drums, the imperial guards holding high shields approached within a hundred steps. They appeared like a group of ghosts in the sight of the city defenders. There was no shouting and charging, no running to kill, they just held up their shields to protect them.
With his body, covering the archers huddled behind the shield, he advanced towards the city step by step.
In addition to them, a roller coaster with a height of several feet was also rolling in, dragged by horses and pushed by soldiers. The huge wooden wheels, which were as tall as a person, made a harsh friction sound when they turned, which made people's teeth ache.
Disgusting. The siege vehicles were the most threatening siege equipment in the siege operations in the past few days. Although dozens of them were burned, the more than 30 aerial vehicles in front of me were slowly approaching like huge towers, which still made people feel uncomfortable.
The defenders at the top of the city felt a great sense of oppression.
In fact, what the defenders at the top of the city don't know is that these thirty cloud carriages have been modified. They are no longer limited to being siege passages leading to the top of the city. Fences as high as one person have been installed on their tops.
, a fence made of iron sheet surrounded a space about ten feet in diameter. In this space, more than a dozen repeating crossbow shooters were already in place. In this way, the roller coaster has actually become a mobile arrow tower.
The reason for doing this is naturally not only the need for firepower reinforcements from these hundreds of crossbow shooters, but it is actually not an arrangement to turn the tide of the entire siege. Their main purpose is actually to give the Yunxiao vehicle a defensive capability.
More than a dozen serial crossbowmen can effectively control the small section of the city wall behind the city wall where the cloud carriage is approaching, and can cover the siege of the Imperial Army in the cloud carriage and climb the city wall through the drawbridge with as little interference as possible. At the same time, they can absorb the lessons learned from the previous days of siege.
The experience and lesson learned from the experience is that the enemy will use fire attacks to deal with the Sky Cart, and throwing kerosene bottles into it will burn the Sky Cart. Therefore, equipping the top with crossbowmen is to prevent the defenders from doing this, and it can be regarded as a way to make up for the situation.
Hai Dongqing stood on the side of the partially intact city tower with a cold expression. In his opinion, the other party's approach of taking no time to step on the drums was a disregard for himself and disrespect. He was not affected by this formation.
Frightened, he only visually measured the distance and slowly raised the long knife in his hand.
The opponent had already approached within ninety steps, and had already entered the range of the bow and arrow. Finally, in the expectation of all the Qing Sect believers guarding the city, the long knife in Hai Dongqing's hand drew an arc forward.
Cold light.
"Fire the arrows!" Song Mian roared at the top of his lungs. When his voice fell, countless heads appeared on the city top, and tens of thousands of bows and arrows were drawn, but the bow strings could be heard "bounce, buzz, buzz".
There was a loud sound. Thousands of arrows erupted into a black smoke, and all rushed towards the crowd of forbidden soldiers under the city.
"Chi chi chi! Puff puff!" The arrows cut through a short distance of dozens of steps with the sound of wind, fiercely piercing into the flesh and blood bodies, bursting out into brilliant flowers of blood.
"Tuk-tuk-tuk." More arrows shot at the big shields in the hands of the imperial guards. The powerful force of the condescending arrows would make the soldiers holding the shields sit down on the ground. The shields in the hands of many soldiers
One moment it was empty, but the next moment it was filled with more than a dozen powerful arrows, as if holding a hedgehog in its hand. The large shields were all made of wood, some were damaged, and they would explode after being hit by powerful arrows.
burst open.
Ding, ding, ding! There was a continuous sound like exploding beans. It was the tall body of the roller coaster being hit by a dense rain of arrows. However, the outer skin of the roller coaster was covered with iron sheets, and the arrows could not damage the structure. But the Yunxiao was pulled in front of it.
All the livestock and horses that were moving forward were shot and killed.
Buzz buzz! A second round of arrows was fired immediately, this time causing even greater damage and casualties. The Forbidden Army soldiers below fell on their backs, killing and wounding countless people. The fired arrows stirred up smoke and dust on the ground, as if they were exploding on the ground.
Countless dust flowers. In a strip area about twenty or thirty paces wide ninety paces away from the city, a jungle of feather arrows appeared on the flat ground. It was densely packed, all inserted into the ground and dead bodies.
Arrow.
Even with shields and exquisite armor, under such a dense rain of arrows, the number of casualties among officers and soldiers was still extremely alarming, and it continued to rise. Countless officers and soldiers fell down after being struck by arrows, groaning and screaming.
The sound echoed throughout the battlefield. The soldiers held their shields in front of them one by one and huddled behind the shields, like birds trembling in the storm, hoping that the small shield in front of them could protect them from the wind and rain. But in
After the livestock and horses were shot dead, dozens of roller coasters came to an abrupt stop and stopped eighty steps away from the city.
Faced with such a fierce blockade by the defenders, even Guo Xu and others at the rear were completely surprised. Although they had already known that the religious bandits had a large number of weapons and arrows in their hands during the past few days of siege, the bows and arrows at the top of the city today were unable to block the attack.
The scale was quite unexpected. I'm afraid it would have taken more than 10,000 bows and arrows to have such horrific consequences. Before this, everyone's judgment was that the opponent's bows and arrows would not exceed 5,000.
.Who would have expected that such an unexpected situation would happen.
All of this is naturally due to Hai Dongqing's pre-war arrangements. Today, there is a one-day truce. Hai Dongqing not only issued an order to recruit strong men to replenish manpower, but also asked to do everything possible to supplement combat readiness materials. Bows and arrows are for the siege officers and soldiers.
The most direct and effective thing that can cause a lot of damage, so Hai Dongqing personally led people to search and collect in the city. Naturally, all the bows and arrows hidden in people's homes were confiscated. In addition, Hai Dongqing also learned from Qian Dezhang
There are a large number of scrapped bows and arrows in the Yingtian Mansion Armory. These bows and arrows have been discarded. Because the bows and arrows themselves are not valuable, they have no recycling value, so they have been piled up in the warehouse for many years without anyone caring about them.
Hai Dongqing took people to move out all these discarded bows and arrows, and picked out all the available accessories. Three or four broken bows and arrows can be put together to become a complete bow and arrow that can be used. Such a combination, unexpectedly,
There are thousands more bows and crossbows available. Hai Dongqing thought clearly that these bows and arrows do not need to be very durable. Even if they can only shoot two or three arrows before breaking and being discarded, it is still worth spending time to repair. Even if they are on the top of the city,
Shooting one more arrow will contribute to the defense of the city and increase hope.
Because of this, there were four to five thousand bows and arrows suddenly added to the city today, and there were all kinds of bows and arrows among them. There were simple long bows made by ordinary people at home, and exquisite bows and arrows collected by wealthy people. There were long bows and short bows.
, some are exquisite, some are crude, some are strong, and some may even break at any time. It is these bows and arrows patchworked together in various ways, which caused huge shock and shock in the first wave of blows to the officers and soldiers.
harm.
I saw the officers and soldiers who were attacking the city were all on their backs, suffering heavy casualties, and some were huddled behind their shields and shivering in embarrassment. It was very different from the previous offensive posture where they had no time to step on the drums. The bandits at the head of the city let out a strange cry.
"The Holy Duke is the greatest and invincible in the world. All evil spirits and heretics must die. Those who dare to attack us will seek death."
Haidongqing stroked his beard and smiled without saying a word. He knew that there was a glimmer of hope for defending the city today. After such a fierce attack, the opponent's number of casualties may reach 20%. Do they still dare to attack? As long as they retreat, today's situation
A siege battle can be regarded as a defeat. They have to retreat before touching the city wall. This has an almost fatal blow to morale. As for our own side, the morale will be high, and Yingtian Mansion will be impregnable.
However, something surprising happened to him. In the gap after the two rounds of arrow rain, the officers and soldiers behind the formation fired a series of medium-sized cannons, and the drums became more violent. A hundred steps away, thousands of cavalry galloped out. These guys seemed to
He stood shirtless, holding a sword with a ghost head in his hand and reining in his horse. He did not move forward or retreat, just standing in a row at the back of the battlefield. Hai Dongqing understood instantly: that was the supervising team. Looking ahead.
The troops and horses were on the verge of collapse, so the commander of the officers and soldiers sent out a team to supervise the fighting in the rear.
The emergence of the Supervisory Team had an immediate effect. All officers and soldiers knew that the Forbidden Army Supervisory Team was a group of executioners. They did not kill the enemy in the army, but only killed their own people. They did not kill anyone who retreated from the battlefield.
Kill them all without mercy. If you retreat now, you will die. The only way is to storm the city. If you are killed by the supervising team, you will have a bad reputation after your death and your family will be affected. If you die in the siege, you can at least get a pension.
A good reputation for sacrificing his life for his country.
"Attack!" The leading general stood up from under his shield, raised his sword and shouted loudly toward the city head.
The figures hiding behind the shields stood up one by one and began to advance towards the city wall. Dozens of soldiers acted as mules and horses, pulling the roller coaster in front to advance towards the city wall. The sound of the wooden wheel turning sounded again, and the drumbeats accompanied the soldiers.
Their footsteps did not stop for a moment. Dong-dong-dong, dong-dong-dong, seemed to be beating in everyone's heart, resounding throughout the whole world.
Countless ant-like figures are the epitome of humble creatures at this moment. Throughout the ages, countless such figures have rushed to death on various battlefields. They have no choice and cannot escape this fate. Many of them will have children and grandchildren in the future.
They must also take the same humble path to death. Although it is sad and sighing, no one can deny that the entire process of history is paved with the blood of the death of these humble people, not those who are high and driven.
A high-ranking person, a nobleman of the royal family, who is willing to die for others.
"Fire arrows for me!" Song Mian yelled.
"Swish, swish, swish! Buzz, woo, woo!" A rain of arrows poured down on the crowd like a pouring water. Flesh and blood were flying, and screams were heard. One by one, lives disappeared in the rain of arrows, leaving blood stains everywhere.
The body of almost everyone has turned into a porcupine with thorns, studded with arrows. Death is no longer a scary thing, what is more scary is not knowing what will happen next moment
You won't die. This unknown is the most terrifying thing.
In just a few dozen seconds, the bandits at the top of the city fired three rounds of arrows in a row, killing more than 30% of the officers and soldiers below the city. In just a few dozen steps, the 10,000 siege vanguards had already lost 3,500 casualties.
Multiple people.
But the officers and soldiers' counterattack finally began.
In a few dozen breaths, the siege officers and soldiers had advanced to within 60 steps of the city. At this position, the Forbidden Army archers could already shoot arrows towards the city head. The remaining 3,000 or so archers began to bend their bows.
Arrows, these professional archers have received professional training. They know at what angle to send arrows to the city wall. They also know how to ensure the lethality of the enemy troops on the city wall. They do not shoot everywhere blindly, but
It is to concentrate the shooting, so that a large amount of arrow rain can cover a local area on the city wall.
"Buzz buzz." Just like the sound made by the vibrating wings of a wasp, the sound made by a good bow and arrow when it is shot is not harsh at all, but full of a low and menacing buzz, which resonates with the surrounding air.
, it even has a thunderous reverberation.
A thick black cloud enveloped the area thirty steps to the left of the city tower. A large number of dense defenders were concentrated here. Because the city tower is a key defensive position, a large number of manpower must be gathered on both sides to defend. Almost in the blink of an eye.
During this time, more than 400 religious bandits and the common people who were forced to go up to the city within the thirty steps of the city wall had no time to react before they were covered by the rain of arrows. After the rain of arrows, the place was full of corpses and was cleared out instantly.
Also affected were religious bandits and ordinary people who were carrying supplies behind the city wall. Some arrows fell over the city wall, killing seventy or eighty of them.
In addition to the Forbidden Army archers who started shooting, the crossbowmen on top of the thirty roller-coasters also entered the attack range. They hid in the iron fence and started shooting at the city wall from the narrow shooting openings. Their
The position was several feet higher than the city wall, and the condescending continuous crossbow fire made it difficult for the dense defenders on the city wall to escape. Amidst the screams, a large number of religious bandits on the city wall were shot and killed, which also interfered with the religious bandits' ability to attack.
The forbidden army's bows and arrows suppressed the city. For a while, there was chaos on the city wall.
"Tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk." A series of sounds like exploding beans rang out, and a row of crossbow arrows were continuously nailed to the pillars in front of the tower. The wood chips that collapsed were scattered in all directions, and smoke filled the air.
"Holy Duke, be careful." Several guardians shouted.
Hai Dongqing staggered and sat on the ground. Fortunately, he was still a little alert. When the first crossbow arrow hit the wooden fence next to him, he jumped sideways and was not hit by the next dozen crossbow arrows.
.But things happened in a hurry, and my feet were not very flexible, so I suddenly sat on the ground.
Song Mian and others hurriedly stepped forward to help him, shouting in panic: "Is the Holy Duke okay? Is he not injured?"
Hai Dongqing's hat fell off, revealing a messy white bun. His face was covered with dust, and he looked really embarrassed. He was a little angry. He was a holy man, but he had magical power to protect his body. He should not be hurt by a few crossbow arrows.
He was in such a mess. The best result was that he stood still, and the crossbow arrows passed by his side and were nailed to the pillars. This showed that he had no fear, his magical skills protected his body, and his swords and arrows also actively avoided the magic of his body.
It's a pity that all this can only be thought about. He can't take this risk.
"Why are you panicking? I was just distracted. I just avoided it instinctively. In fact, even if the crossbow arrow hit me, how could it hurt me?" Hai Dongqing shouted.
Several of the guardians raised their eyes and said nothing, thinking: Why are we still trying to support us when we are already like this? Do we really think we are fools?
Hai Dongqing put on his hat again and looked at the situation below the city. Due to the opponent's counterattack, the suppression force at the top of the city was no longer enough. The siege troops and horses had already arrived within thirty steps. The cloud carriage only needed to approach two feet away.
Then the long suspension bridge can be built on the city head, and that is the beginning of the hand-to-hand combat. At the far rear of the battlefield, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of the second echelon of officers and soldiers have begun to advance. Once the hand-to-hand combat between the two sides begins, the officers and soldiers in the rear will launch
Charge and drag the battle into brutal melee combat.
"I have ordered everyone to prepare for hand-to-hand combat. All supplies are ready. No officer or soldier is allowed to climb the city wall alive." Hai Dongqing shouted coldly.
"Yes!" Song Mian and others agreed in unison, and the order was quickly conveyed to every corner of the city wall. All the bandits began to pick up stones and rolling logs. The hot oil pans were also carried to the wall, preparing to burn the roller coaster.
The bottle of kerosene was also clutched in their hands. Everyone was nervously waiting for the arrival of a more tragic moment.
