On the head of Huaiyang City, even in military uniforms, it is difficult to conceal Qingjun, and a beautiful beard, which was rated as "learned and knowledgeable, good fame, and good at arching horses." "Meiran general" Chenzhou provincial governor. And the defense makes Zhao Yan. Just now led his subordinates to visit the god master Zhang (Xun) Zhongcheng on a routine basis.
After only speaking the routine morale-boosting words, he looked at the most slender defenders gathered around him, and saw that the city had been laid out, and all kinds of siege equipment lined up, and he couldn't help but give birth to " The sadness and sigh of "doing not escape" came.
As the imperial court in Henan and even the Central Plains, the branch of the Zhongwu Army was the most adept at fighting; the children of Chenzhou were also in the midst of successive years of battles and chaos, suffering heavy casualties and exhaustion. Even if they repeatedly defeated the bandit army under the siege of the city, it would not change the reality that the army and civilians of Chenzhou could rely on food, grass, equipment, and materials.
Although he always looks confident, he is also confident when he opens his mouth and closes his mouth. But the so-called lonely city is not abiding. Looking at the huge land of Henan and even the land of Guandong, everyone is full of thieves and who can become his foreign aid and echo.
His ancestors were originally from Tianshui, and after the King Bing Ma pinged the Central Plains, he stayed in Chenzhou and became a hereditary tooth general. Therefore, when Qin Zongquan of Caizhou, one of the three states of Zhongwu, became independent and turned to the thieves, after Xu Zhou was broken by thieves and slaughtered;
He categorically dispersed his possessions in the village to recruit Ding Zhuang, decisively defeated and slaughtered many local thieves who responded to the disturbance, and even took advantage of the momentum to gather the remnants and dependents who had fled from the Zhongwu Army. He called himself a defensive ambassador and prince.
After entering Chenzhou, he renovated the city wall on the spot, dredged the ditch, collected food and firewood, and strengthened the army training, recruited the strong warriors of the four directions, repaired the armor, and prepared for long-term defense; and the surrounding area was occupied. The next has persisted until now.
But this persistence seems to have reached a certain limit. Because although Wang Huang's anti-thief originated from Caozhou under the rule of the Tianping Army, the bloody feud of the Yu Zhongwu Army was also the deepest among all the thief officers.
The reason is also very simple, because Xue Chong, the former two-term ambassador of the Tianping Army, was a debtor who relied on nepotism and bribery to buy the position of heavy ministers. In addition to his family ancestry, he was nothing but waste.
Therefore, in the face of the influx of chaos and thieves, what he first thought was not how to take the initiative to attack and rebel in the first place, but to sit in a trapped army in the city and let the thieves rampage everywhere, and then desperately asked the court for help.
When the imperial court sent a candidate to take over, he was already frightened and exhausted by the tactics of the thieves. He eventually became the first official of the imperial court who was not among thieves since Zhenyuan; he is also among the defenders of the Sixty-four towns today. The only one who died at the hands of the mob, not the joke and shame of the tooth soldier or Jun Zhi.
Therefore, the imperial court did not dare to trust and relied on the power of the Tianping Army for a while, and the Zhongwu Army, led by Cui An, near Xuzhou, and the Pinglu Army of Qingzhou Songwei, sent troops to fight against it. As a result, the loyal army, who first entered the "town of thieves" in Caozhou, slaughtered wildly on the grounds of cutting grass and roots.
Especially in Huang Ni's hometown (today's Mudan District, Heze City, Shandong), the heads of the murdered were rolling, and men, women, old and children were inevitable; therefore, after the official army, the old, weak and juveniles were all over the ravines and fields. , The woman drowned naked among the lotus ponds.
Afterwards, the loyal military army fought against thieves in Henan, defeating the first two thieves of the Yellow King for countless times; however, they have never been able to eradicate them. Even though more and more beheadings of the loyal military army reported their merits, the distance and range of the chasing and turning battles were getting farther and farther, and the thieves became more and more disturbed.
Now, they are turning around to taste the bitter fruit of the endless suppression of thieves and their inability to restrain the military discipline.
After hearing that Xuzhou City was broken, the soldiers and civilians all over the city were unavoidable. When the thief army slaughtered for three days behind closed doors, the blood flowing from the ditches directly stained the Caohe's tens of miles. The corpses that were cleared out of the landfill were filled with new pits so that there was nowhere to go in the countryside.
It was also because of this rumor that Chenzhou, which had not yet fallen, aroused the panic and fear of the people of the whole city, the people of the city, and the enemy, Zhao Yi was able to clean up and integrate most of the forces in the city of Chenzhou, and persisted to the present situation. .
But no matter how many times he repulsed and frustrated the offensive of the thief army, he could not change the fact; his subordinates were actually the main force and elite troops of the loyal military army.
Therefore, it is not that the gentry and big households in the city are relatively vaguely persuading him to "how to deal with thieves for a while", "As long as you can maintain the current situation, why should you care about temporary fame and reputation."
However, it is said that the thief chief Huang Ni has already said: "The world can be forgiven, and loyalty and military will never forgive." As for all the military officials and dependents who were captured and related to the Zhongwu Army, more than 2,000 people were taken to Dongdu to beheaded and cut their hearts to pay tribute to the thieves who died in the past years. Miss most.
Despite this, the only things he can rely on now are his two younger brothers who are in trouble, the commander Chen Xu of the defense chief and Chen Xu, the pro-family master, and the two sons of the two generals, Zhao Zhao. Quan and Zhao Yi, as well as the Zhao clan who followed them.
However, this time is different from most thieves who only know how to make simple wooden ladders and baffles and rely on more people to attack the city; this thieves seem to be more advanced and well equipped, even There are also large siege equipment that looks decent.
He was thinking about patrolling and encouraging this as usual. The soldiers on the city were still tired and feared; they called out their names and origins one by one, talked about the origins of the father and brother, or remembered the fighting in the Anshi chaos. The allusions and characters of the enemy serving the country, and sealing their wives, cute sons, or lintels.
Even if it is a newcomer who has nothing to say, he will give a look like a spring breeze, or give encouragement with the smile of a gentle elder. Suddenly the ranks of thieves outside the city suddenly moved.
Amidst the rumbling drums, the tornado cannon, which stood on the ground and began to shake, tightened its hair like a large pen holder, and then the ox cart pulled over the crossbow with the wheel and the frame. The stone cannon racks several feet high were erected.
And the defenders on the city’s head also seemed to have been awakened, and immediately swept away the faint sluggishness and sluggishness. Driven by countless exercises and the habit of confrontation, they will send bows, arrows, short spears, The fork handles and the hooks were grabbed from the positions where they were placed, and then leaned over the fortresses of the city wall and the edges of the enemy platform and horse face in turn.
Then, amidst the waving of the small flag on the city’s head and the screaming screams, the people waiting on the inside of the city wall began to hoard the bricks, stones and woods of various colors around them like flowing water; The sandy soil, especially boiled in a bucket of "golden juice", is brought up to the shoulders of the running water.
The charcoal stoves and braziers that were originally left on the city’s head with only embers and fires were re-added with more firewood fuel following the short horns that sounded one after another, and gradually became vigorous in the curls of green smoke.
When the horn was sounded three times in a row, the armored soldiers lined up on the inner side of the city wall were all ready to take the enemy; and there were unarmored soldiers with a rack of arrows stuck in their waists, and they gave the opponents these bows. Behind the armored soldier catching the spear.
Some of them were pulled out in whole, immersed in the collected horse urine and other mixtures, and then the arrows that had become dirty and dull were put back into the quiver; while some of the arrows were fastened by hands and feet. Fine cloth strips soaked in oil.
At this time, the thieves under the city slowly drove out for a while, struggling to push the large row of pulleys obliquely covered as a front-line forward, and then followed the crossbowmen in a row, and went along to be filled in the re-attack battle. The flat trenches approached.
However, compared with the thieves' archers and crossbowmen who were gradually approaching the range of the city, the first to arrive was the roar and roar of the tall stone cannons in the rear.
Those Chenzhou Shoubing, who stretched their bows and held up the oil-filled arrows to be shot, involuntarily made an uproar and confession; just as the naked eye can see a dozen or so trajectories dragging out the smoke, they are flying in exclaim. A small number of them crashed on the wall.
Among them, there were three coarsely polished stone bullets scattered high and low, which directly hit the crevice where the defending army was and the enemy platform; at that moment, the rammed earth wall in the center was beaten to pieces and cracked. Together with the defenders crouching behind, they overturned and overturned a piece.
Another stone bullet was hitting the wall roll and racket hanging on the edge of the enemy's platform with chains, and instantly interrupted the thick equipment and flew up, hitting one of the defenders holding their bows behind them. In, aroused many exclamations and screams.
The third stone bullet slid across the battlement's uneasy defenders' helmets, and obliquely knocked down a newly clustered guard tower; I saw that this one had lost enough support in between. The wooden guard tower, together with the several archers struggling and dancing on it, fell on the head of the defender who was close and yelling and suddenly retreated, but was in a ball and couldn't dodge.
In a blink of an eye, the dust, smoke and debris, accompanied by the splash of blood and screams, flooded all the standing figures in this short section of the city wall.
At the same time, the rest of the stone bullets were banging one after another on the rammed earth wall; and then, amid the obvious tremor at the feet of the defenders, they cracked and peeled off pieces of large and small pieces. . Almost every sound is like a knock and gouge on the morale and fighting spirit of the defenders at the head of the city.
But there were more projectiles flying high over the city and falling into the square area behind the wall, blasting one after another with screams and howlings one after another. Then, a few smoke trails from the building being lit, began to rise in the noisy city.
And Zhao Yan's face gradually became solemn and even faintly difficult to look; at this time, a sergeant with his arms rushed forward, but he brought him bad news.
"It's not good. (Second brother) Zhao knows he was hurt by the shattering of gunstones,"
At the same time, the array of rebels under the city was full of joy and excitement. Even the sound of drums to help out became much louder, and the row of cars pushing forward seemed to be more brisk. Accelerated.
"It's really a good skill. It's actually two or three in the first game. It's worthy of being the most officer-like Taiping soldier among our rebels..."
And Zhu Zhen, the general who was in charge of the detention in front of the city, also exclaimed in a loud voice without concealment.
"I heard that when Chief Shang was in charge of them attacking Xuzhou, they used hundreds of equipment to attack at the same time, and it might not be possible to hit a few times with ten shots..."
"Pass the order, let them continue to fight hard, and earnestly fight, the more you send, the more rewards I will reward afterwards..."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Laosan, who was all smiles, also decided loudly.
"Let the helpers learn from others. If I learn the first thing, I will protect him as a captain and triple the reward, plus the benefits of daily canned meat."
Then, he hesitated and said to the ministers near Zao:
"After this war, I deliberately picked some bold people to come and go to the south to practice firearms and siege weapons... I don't know what you think..."
"This is a great thing..."
Zhu Zhen was the first to express his stance.
"Du Yuhou said so much..."
"Naturally listen to the three generals..."
"Let's just do what the boss says..."
Others also rushed to agree with each other; the few lieutenant Li Bintang and others who didn't speak, inevitably had a gloomy and disappointed expression on their expressions.
Suddenly there was a small school flying horse reported:
"When Bingdu is in danger, an enemy from the city rushes to the east side gate to attack, and the two groups of troops who have already dismantled and blocked are coming here..."
"It's just right, where are Zhang Cunjing and Xu Huaiyu, both of the horse team, and I will meet these Chenzhou official dogs..."
When Zhu Lao San heard this, he turned around and waved the Dacloak without being surprised.
Before his words fell, smoke and dust could be seen billowing along a corner of the city wall; at the same time, the city gate directly opposite also opened loudly, and a fierce horse came out, directly hitting those advancing. Siege sequence.
At the corner of Daying, which was first seen forming in the rear, he suddenly rushed out of Shuqi, and galloped towards the direction of Tongguan in the northwest. (End of this chapter)