On the siege battlefield, it is very dangerous to temporarily change formations or tactics, and it is very likely to lead to chaos and trampling, thus causing more damage.
But Tian Jianxiu had no choice. He also suddenly realized the error of his original tactics during actual combat, and could only urgently plug the leak.
If you don't do this, but withdraw your troops and charge from the beginning again next time, the losses will only be greater.
Because the mounds and slopes temporarily filled in the corners of the wall today, the ladder trucks, flying ladders, and trench trucks that were transported up will all be completely destroyed by the defenders after the war. Once these heavy siege equipment appears, the siege troops will be defeated and retreat.
, is difficult to preserve.
The next time the troops charge, they will have to endure another round of firepower and cross-coverage during the approach.
Thousands of soldiers in the front row of the bandit siege had to make the decision of Tian Jianxiu to change the direction of attack directly within the shooting range of the defenders at the top of the city despite missing arrows and firearms.
The heavy ladder could not turn quickly for the time being, so the soldiers who climbed first could only carry the ladder, rush towards the nearby horses, push the ladder against the wall, and charge upward like crazy.
During the whole process, the city was destroyed like rain, and guns and artillery roared, taking away the lives of the bandit soldiers at every moment. In just one cup of tea, hundreds of people were killed, and even more wounded soldiers were killed.
too much.
Some of the troops who relied on ladders to attack the city could not give up their equipment for a while, so they had to continue attacking ordinary city wall sections like targets, and soon fell into chaos.
Fortunately, their efforts were not completely worthless. At least their deaths also attracted a considerable part of the firepower of the army, which reduced the pressure of muskets and crossbows on their comrades who turned to attack the horses.
"Kill! Charge up! If you charge from the front of the horse, you won't be hit by the Franchise! Kill the gunner on the wall and hack it to death. Then the brothers on the other side of the ladder can board the city!"
On the battlefield in front of the horse, several mid-level rogue officers at the headquarters level, also wearing heavy armor, waved their swords and shouted loudly, urging the soldiers to work hard to climb the city.
The Bubu Zong is equivalent to the Qian Zong of the Ming Army. However, because the Chuang Army has been fighting for many years, the soldiers have suffered more casualties, and they are rarely replenished to the full strength. Therefore, a Qian Zong can only lead an average of six to seven hundred people, and more
Then eight or nine hundred.
Nowadays, Tian Mianxiu uses each unit to attack a horse face, which is equivalent to an average of 700 soldiers per hour, and captures a platform that is only a few dozen steps wide and protrudes from the wall. The density of troops is already very high.
In the face of the ants, shooting arrows and guns was obviously too inefficient and the output speed was too slow. So the defenders at the top of the city began to throw small pieces of rolling wood and rocks down with all their strength. Almost instantly, at least 100% of the firepower could be fired in front of every horse.
Directly smashed to death dozens of soldiers.
Fortunately, the crossbowmen of the Chuang Army were also firing arrows desperately to try to suppress them. After being shot and injured a few soldiers of the Ming Army, they did not dare to throw wood and rocks. They could only use the blind throwing method without observing.
The stone weight is also relatively small——
For stones that are too big, you can only hold them with both hands and lower them down. If you want to throw them over your head like a shot down the toilet, you won't be able to throw them, so you can't use them if your head is not exposed.
However, the soldiers outside the horse wall were too dense. The Ming army did not need to aim when throwing stones. The hit rate was almost 10% when throwing stones blindly. The soldiers suffered heavy casualties and suffered terribly, but they still had to grit their teeth and hold on.
Rush upward.
After suffering hundreds of casualties, some brave men among the bandit soldiers finally stepped on the corpses of their comrades and rushed to the top of the wall.
This can only be blamed on a small and broken county like Cai. The city wall is really too short. It is only one foot, seven or eight feet high, and so many people died below. The subsequent explosive power is good, and you can jump up in a few steps.
However, the officers and soldiers at the head of the city were already well prepared, and pike teams were mobilized from other sections of the wall. They rushed forward and launched a countercharge, turning the first group of bandit warriors who had just entered the city into a hornet's nest.
It's not that the bandit warriors didn't try to fight back in hand-to-hand combat, but they couldn't carry long weapons when climbing the city wall. They could only charge with a short sword and a shield on their back.
As for the kind of spears and spears that are more than eight feet long, it is difficult to climb the wall when carried on the back. Maybe when it is still half a foot away from the top of the wall, the spear shaft has already exposed the top of the city. The guard pushed him from a distance, and his whole body
They can even fall off the city wall.
Therefore, among the melee weapons of the dead soldiers, the longest ones were some long-handled battle axes, and the handles would never exceed five or six feet. If they were pushed back by others in a formation, they would naturally be at a huge disadvantage.
Of course, if it is a fight on an ordinary city wall, this situation is not obvious, because there may be many breakthrough points everywhere, and it will be difficult for the defenders with long weapons to turn around and move around, and they may also be killed by new climbers emerging from the side.
Death, it is difficult to maintain the direction of the gun array in a chaotic battle.
However, what the bandits were attacking at this moment was not an ordinary wall section, but a horse face.
The horse face is protruding from the ordinary city wall. If you only attack the horse face and the ordinary wall section behind is not invaded by ants, the defender's pike team only needs to be careful of the direction in front of the protrusion. There is no need to worry about the left and right sides.
The enemy will not come.
Once the spear formation only needs to focus on facing one direction, it is impossible to fall into chaos and chaos. Of course, other melee combat units with short weapons have no chance of winning.
The bandits repeatedly charged and killed, and more and more soldiers who barely managed to climb up the wall were slaughtered wildly, and their bodies were thrown under the city. A few men with long-handled axes could barely fight to the death for one, but such warriors were among the bandits.
How many more? Li Zicheng simply couldn't afford to replace him with an ordinary spearman.
The bloody and brutal fighting lasted for less than half a stick of incense. As Tian Jianxiu's soldiers paid the direct price of at least a thousand casualties and more wounded soldiers, the bandit side finally became exhausted.
.
The bandits attacked a total of seven or eight horse faces on the entire north gate wall. Only the two horse faces that Tian Jianxiu personally supervised were still fighting to the death, while the other five or six places were defeated.
In the two places in front of Tian Jianxiu, he invested his close relatives and dead soldiers, including two dead soldiers from the Shaanxi old camp. The soldiers were not afraid of death, and their martial arts and physical fitness were also very strong. Everyone also had Tiezha cotton armor.
I could barely withstand it.
However, with the defeat of the friendly forces on the left and right, these last two places will obviously receive the focus of attention from the army.
Huang Degong, who was in charge of supervising the overall battle at the top of the city, saw that the enemy troops had retreated in several places, and only the last two places were in particularly critical condition, so he personally came with his own barracks to plug the leaks.
The soldiers around Huang Degong were all wearing iron-clad cotton armor and were well-equipped, which instantly wiped out the equipment advantage of Li Zicheng's veteran Shaanxi camp who had been a thief for more than ten years.
Huang Degong himself opened and closed a steel spear, stabbed wildly, and directly stabbed a rogue brigade who was wielding a long-handled steel battle ax and had killed several Ming army armored soldiers.
Stab one through the other,
After stirring it up hard, he pulled out the blade from the waist and cut almost half of the palmist in half, leaving his internal organs flowing all over the floor.
"Death to the dog thief!" After Huang Degong beheaded the general, he continued to shout for a fierce battle. Like a mad tiger, his soldiers rushed forward, flying steel spears and stabbing more than ten people to death in a row.
The thieves who first boarded the dead soldiers finally collapsed completely. Some people who were relatively close to Huang Degong even chose to jump over the wall to escape.
"Tian Jianxiu is a dog thief! I want to attack your Grandpa Huang's city. Let's practice hard after reincarnation in the next life!" After Huang Degong's victory, he shouted loudly, and all the soldiers in the army followed him and shouted insults and taunts towards the city.
…
In this day's battle, Tian Mixiu was completely defeated, and he fell into decline from the beginning.
His subsequent remedial attempts could only be regarded as a temporary slap on the thigh, and the outcome was indeed not good.
Therefore, Liu Fangliang on the other side had no intention of joining the reserve team from the beginning. This allowed Liu Fangliang to basically escape unscathed.
After returning to the camp, Liu Fangliang also immediately found Tian Jianxiu to discuss how to give an explanation to King Chuang.
Tian Jianxiu drank the wine and sighed: "I just counted the troops and found that more than 4,000 soldiers were killed, including those who were seriously injured and were left under the city and could not be carried back. The other wounded who came back in the past few days may still be there."
There will be more casualties.
The Shen Gou thieves and Huang Chuangzi defended the city too ruthlessly. If they hadn't given us a chance from the beginning, we wouldn't have invested so much. But the city they were guarding didn't seem to pose any threat from long-range heavy artillery.
, but it can stick to you and kill like crazy, making it difficult to leave even if you want to."
Liu Fangliang can certainly understand this frustration. Since ancient times, if the defensive equipment in siege battles was too powerful, the attacking side would not die in vain, and their morale would collapse long ago and they would retreat.
It is this kind of situation that gives you hope and makes you feel that you can achieve it if you work harder, which can stick to you and make you die the most. And even ordinary soldiers will think, "Why don't you try harder and rush forward?"
”.
But the fact is that all this is a fantasy.
Liu Fangliang said sympathetically: "A defeat is a defeat. I don't think the king will take heavy responsibility. The key is to find out the enemy's flaws and figure out why we lost today and whether there is any other way to remedy it.
As long as we can figure out the flaws in Shen Gouzhi and Huang Chuangzi's tactics, with your magnanimity, you will definitely let us go and no longer pursue the case."
Tian Jianxiu was a little stunned. Hearing what Liu Fangliang said, he understood the reason, but his mind was already in a mess. How could he analyze Zichou Yinmao?
After the two chatted for a while, Liu Fangliang saw that the other party was talking nonsense, so he cleared his throat and suggested:
"I was watching the battle from the sidelines today, and I discovered some of the shortcomings of the Shen Gou thief, but I can't be sure. Maybe he has a back-up plan. But since you can't explain it to the king, brother, let's talk about it and think about it together. If we feel that
Yes, you go and report it to the king - but if you make a mistake in the future, we will not be responsible."
Tian Jianxiu was dozing off and lacked a pillow. When he heard this, he immediately patted his chest and said, "Brother Liu, what are you talking about? My brother, if you are willing to help me come up with ideas, I will definitely remember your favor! Whatever he thinks, it's the last resort.
No, let’s get rid of the king’s accountability first!”
Liu Fangliang touched Hu Zaizi and said, "I finally figured it out. Thief Shen Gou really installed all the Folang machines on both sides of the horse's face to bombard the sides of ordinary city walls.
With such fierce firepower, it is definitely impossible to attack those sunken ordinary city walls. Those Folang machines use shotguns, and one shot from a sweep can kill a row of soldiers stuck to the wall.
However, putting all the artillery on the side has a disadvantage compared to placing the artillery upright, that is, you can only stare at the two sides of the deployed horse face and fire. If it is far away or blocked by other horse faces, you will not be able to cross it.
Hunting cattle across the mountains.
This is far inferior to firing the artillery forward. After all, you can adjust the angle slightly when firing, and you can hit a large range. And can Chen Shuren really have so many artillery? What if six cannons were placed on each horse?
There are three door cannons on the left and right sides. With so many horses in the city, how many cannons are needed?
Today we only attacked Beicheng. If we rest and recuperate in a few days and then fight again, we can also attack the other three sides. Can the Shen Gou thieves have so many cannons that they can fill every side of the city? After we test it, if we try
If you don't have enough artillery, you'll still have a chance if you focus on attacking weak points!
Soldiers can move much faster than artillery. When we find out which side has fewer artillery, the soldiers can immediately rush to that side to attack. If the officers and soldiers want to move the artillery, they will not be able to move it for a day and a half."
The more Tian Jianxiu listened, the more interesting he felt. After hearing this, he finally felt relieved: "Thanks to Brother Liu for your good judgment! We can escape the king's guilt today, and we will thank you very much later! Come on, I will go and apologize to the king."
——
ps: Two updates will be resumed today, and there will be one update before 5 pm. I don’t know if the comment server has been maintained and whether it can be displayed.