Li Chongjin and Guo Shao summoned more than 20 military commanders to the front camp. Because Guo Shao had just taken over the Shouzhou Recruiting Envoy and needed to work here, he was extra careful when introducing the military commanders. There were too many people and they were only mentioned once, so Guo Shao could not remember most of their names and appearances, but he only paid attention to their positions in his mind, so as to understand what kind of troops were outside Shouzhou City.
These people were completely different from the familiar imperial guards, with various military names. Guo Shao listened silently for a long time, and only after hearing that they provided their own weapons and fodder did he realize that they were local soldiers from Song, Hao, Chen, Ying, Xu, Su, Xu, Cai, and other states, and some were guardsmen from local towns, including defense envoys and governors. The local soldiers were relatively good, at least they had military names; some were real civilians, with one soldier for every seven households, and the civilians were directly recruited and pulled into the battle array after a little organization.
The soldiers directly under the Imperial Guards were not the frontline troops of the Zhou Dynasty, but the soldiers who were stationed in the areas near Kaifeng Prefecture. Most of those who were eliminated during the reorganization of the Imperial Guards from last year to this year belonged to the various troops of the Palace Front Department. Now they usually farmed and had no military expenses. They were only summoned and sent to the front line when fighting Huainan.
Guo Shao originally thought that although the military duties assigned to him were a tough task, the number of troops under his command would increase dramatically. After all, there were so many troops outside Shouzhou City. As a result, the only elite troops he could use remained unchanged: the First and Second Armies of the Left Wing of the Tiger and Jet Army. These were the troops he led from Tokyo.
There was also a regular army of nearly 20,000 people outside Shouzhou City: the right wing of the Hujie Army.
But the military commander of this army is Li Jixun, whom Guo Shao had met when Xiang Xun's son, Jiro, was one year old. He is the eldest of the ten brothers of Yishe and is now the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard Division and the Infantry Division.
Guo Shao did not think he could command him. Li Jixun's troops did not move, which seemed to indicate that they would not attack the city, but would just stay here and wait for an opportunity to move, or prepare to attack the reinforcements of Southern Tang.
The situation was very bad, and Guo Shao was filled with fear and anxiety. He did not sleep well that night, and got up in the middle of the night to walk around and inspect the siege works outside the city, but he could not see clearly, so he could only check the teams on duty at night.
It was already mid-July, and it was still a bit cold at night. From time to time, there was a bonfire, and the brothers on duty gathered around it to warm themselves. One soldier got some lotus roots from somewhere, sprinkled them with salt, and roasted them on the fire, just like having a barbecue. The camp was quiet at night, but the occasional groaning of the wounded in the air affected the quiet atmosphere.
The next morning, Guo Shao had just put on his chain mail and walked out of the house in the village when he saw a lot of people outside the trenches and fences in the distance. Many people were repairing large equipment such as catapults, and some horses were forming a battle array and pushing out ladders, as if they were going to attack the city.
Li Chuyun, Luo Yanhuan and others came over first, and then more than 20 military officers came over here. Seeing Guo Shao looking outside the door, everyone did not go into the hall, but gathered around him to look.
Are we going to storm the city wall again? Guo Shao asked.
A general said: The moat has been filled in several places. It is arranged by the higher-ups that we need to continue filling the moat and attacking the city. General Guo, we still have to follow the previous orders.
Guo Shao asked again who gave the order.
The general said: General Li is stationed in Huainan.
Guo Shao stopped talking. He had just arrived in Shouzhou and didn't know most of these people. Since it was Li Chongjin's previous military order, he asked the generals to follow the previous deployment. As long as it didn't rain, it seemed that they were attacking the city every day. It had become a routine and could not be considered the eve of the battle, so Guo Shao didn't waste any words and immediately ordered the troops to disperse and perform their duties.
At this time, a group of people suddenly gathered outside the village fence, so Guo Shao ordered Luo Mengzi to let them in. The leader was an old soldier with wrinkled face and gray hair. Guo Shao saw that he looked familiar and quickly remembered that they were the soldiers who pleaded for them yesterday. He had an impression of this old man because he had spoken before.
There was a thin man beside the old soldier. Both of them had narrow faces. Maybe they were relatives. When they came to Guo Shao, the old soldier knelt down and said: My eldest son is the captain. We have discussed it. We are going to die anyway. We want to die on the battlefield so that we won’t be looked down upon by other brothers in the army. So today I asked for a fight. General Guo asked us to go to the front to attack the city. I want to have a quick death.
Guo Shao turned around and saw the generals who had just left were watching curiously not far away. He pondered for a moment and said: Go find your own generals, and those who go to the front to attack the city and survive will be pardoned for the crime of deserting yesterday.
The father and son said: We obey your orders.
After Guo Shao finished speaking, he took the reins from his personal soldiers, jumped on his horse, and led Yang Biao and other generals of the Tiger Army to the front. The group ran around the city twice to look at the terrain. This is a big city. After riding around the city twice, the sun was already three poles above the horizon.
The catapults on all sides had already started moving, and huge stones were whizzing towards the city wall two or three hundred steps away. The Zhou army soldiers below the city wall rushed over, shooting arrows from top to bottom, and the ladders were pushed closer to the city wall by groups of people like huge wooden tanks. No matter how spectacular the scene in the wilderness was, no matter how big the equipment was, its power was still limited. The stones from the catapults could smash the city wall into pieces, but after more than a month of attack, they still couldn't break the thick brick-clad earth wall.
Bows, crossbows, stones, and fireballs were just preludes, and in the end, they returned to the siege method that Guo Shao had often seen: mindless wall climbing. Of course, there is also a more vivid term called ant attachment.
I saw a ladder being pushed to the wall, with a carriage and two rows of wooden wheels underneath. The folded ladder on top was then unfolded and placed on the top of the city wall. As soon as the ladder was put up with a snap, a crazy shout was heard and the Zhou army soldiers rushed up.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, a piece of black oil was poured down from a wooden barrel on the top of the city wall, and then several torches were thrown out. The black oil caught fire with a bang, and a raging fire broke out on the ladders. The screams of the Zhou army soldiers were simply unbearable to hear. People fell from the ladders. Some who did not die rolled on the ground in pain. Some people poured water on them, but it was difficult to put out the fire. Many people could not bear it and jumped directly into the moat.
The air was filled with black smoke and a smell of burning asphalt mixed with the smell of burnt hair.
Guo Shaoguang was standing several hundred steps away and watching, and his scalp tingled. What was the difference between this and committing suicide? Where did the Southern Tang Kingdom dig up the oil? This thing could actually be used like this.
This situation filled Guo Shao's heart with shadows. He felt that fighting on the battlefield was not scary at all, but attacking the city was a nightmare.
There were also catapults in the city, which seemed to be behind the city wall. Guo Shao could not see them, but he could see some people standing on the top of the city wall, looking back and shouting, as if they were observing the direction. Not long after, a burning clay pot flew out of the city. The clay pot fell accurately into a crowd like a fireball, and broke with a bang. Oil and fire splashed everywhere. The crowd dispersed and the burning people rolled on the ground.
The fire on the ladder in front was getting more and more fierce, and it was impossible to put it out. The people in the carriage and the surroundings had already turned around and ran, but just after running across the moat, they saw a horse-riding general with a group of cavalry rushing towards them, hacking at them head-on and shouting and cursing. Then the chaotic soldiers merged into the crowd of people on the ladder behind.
Thick smoke billowed from the top and bottom of the city walls, and Shouzhou City was soon shrouded in black smoke and flames.
The Zhou army fought one after another, and after a round of crossbow shooting, ladders were put up on the city wall again, and some more crude ladders were put up from all sides. People climbed up desperately like ants. A general shouted from behind: "The first one to climb the city wall will be rewarded with wealth and glory for the rest of his life!"
There was no sign of wealth and glory at all. First, a barrel of oil was poured on their heads. Several people fell down with their bodies on fire. The wooden ladders were instantly ignited with fire. This oil was really useful for the Southern Tang army. It could be ignited in an instant. Otherwise, it would not be easy to burn the ladders.
But this wave of Zhou soldiers was extremely brave, some of them even rushed up the burning ladder without caring about their own lives, with a completely desperate attitude. Guo Shao saw clearly that the first soldier who rushed up had his hands and feet burned, and his screams were heard even outside the defeated steps. He rushed up and hugged a Tang soldier, and jumped down from the top of the city wall. What's the point of being the first to rush up? He would die anyway.
Some people suffered heavy casualties. A few climbed up the city wall using simple ladders, but seeing the swords and guns flying around, they were afraid that they would be chopped into meat paste.
Such a brave and fearless soldier died in such a meaningless way. Guo Shao finally couldn't hold back and shouted, "Send someone to order the troops in the front to stop the siege immediately!"
After a while, a group of military officers came to Guo Shao one after another to confirm the order to withdraw. Then, amid the shouts of the people, the countless people under the city wall slowly retreated like the tide. From a distance, it looked like the sea water receded.
Let's not attack Shouzhou. General Li ordered us to attack at all costs a few days ago. A general looked at Guo Shao in disbelief.
Guo Shao ignored them and focused on the bravest group of people. He pointed his whip at the place and sent his soldiers to call them over to meet him. Soon, a group of people came carrying some half-dead people.
The one walking in front was the old soldier who asked for battle in the morning. Guo Shao suddenly realized that it was those people who wanted to escape Shouzhou yesterday, but today they became fearless and unafraid of death. It is really difficult to determine the ability of human beings.
The wounded soldiers who were carried back were simply unbearable to look at. Their skin was burned over a large area, and their bodies were black. On the black bodies, red flesh without skin was exposed. They screamed in pain on the racks. They looked like people who had been blown up by a bomb, not scars from a cold weapon war.
The old soldier who had spoken to Guo Shao was wiping his tears and talking to the wounded man lying next to him. The man was covered in black and his clothes were torn. He looked like a dead man. Maybe he was the old soldier's son.
Guo Shao asked: What is your name
The old soldier choked up and said: Tan Shitou.
Guo Shao said: "Those who survived are all innocent. You will change your unit number now, and attach to the left wing of the Tiger and Jie Army, and the unit number will be the lower camp, and Qin Dashi will be the captain."
Guo Shao felt upset and looked back at the generals and said: We were all born by our mothers and raised by our fathers. After fighting like this, when I returned to Tokyo, the villagers asked me if I wanted a husband or a son. What should I say