The first rays of light in the morning poured into the house through the wooden windows, and Guo Shaoneng could smell the moist and fresh air in the morning. He had just put on two layers of armor with the help of Luo Mengzi, with the breastplate armor inside and the ring mail armor outside.
Luo Mengzi was nagging at the side: I know I have no ability, but I know that my elder brother is capable. Just like this time, if it were me, I would not be able to make it. I know that I am only a soldier and I can't hope to be an official. But, I also want that fierce woman at home to have such a day, to eat well and wear well, but the salary and food of being a soldier is too little. In the future, I will get some benefits from my elder brother, hehe
Guo Shao thought, if even Luo Er had such thoughts, then others might also want to have some goals, but only this guy would say it out loud.
He patted Luo Er on the shoulder and said kindly: As long as it is something that big brother has, I will never treat you unfairly.
When he heard Luo Mengzi mention the woman at home, he couldn't help but touch the auspicious talisman hanging around his neck. He thought of Yu Lian for a while, and then the complicated memories of his past life flashed through his mind. For a while, he felt uneasy for some reason.
At this moment, there was a sudden bang, and an old man covered in bamboo slips pushed the door open, kicked the threshold and fell down, gasping for breath and coughing. Guo Shao raised his chin slightly to signal, and Luo Mengzi hurried forward to help the old man up.
The Khitan soldiers are coming
After hearing this, Guo Shao took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and said quickly: "Third brother, immediately beat the gong to gather all the troops, and notify the second brother to take up their positions according to the scheduled arrangements. Be on alert."
Luo Mengzi's face suddenly became solemn, and he clasped his fists and said: "I understand your command."
Guo Shao then turned around and asked: How many people are there
I only saw a few cavalrymen, whose clothes, armor, weapons and appearance were not Han Chinese. The old man glared and said, I didn’t dare to stay any longer, and quickly ran back along the small road.
Guo Shao took out a half-foot short dagger from the bedside and hid it in his arms, then took out a shield sword from the wooden rack and hung it up, and finally took the bow and quiver, and strode out of the door. Outside, the sound of gongs kept ringing, and there were dogs barking and chickens croaking, making the place lively for a while.
He walked straight up to the city wall, and several soldiers followed him up. Looking into the distance, he saw the shadows of cavalry approaching slowly at the end of his sight.
At this time, a heavy and orderly sound of footsteps sounded behind him. Yang Biao led 20 to 30 fully armed imperial guards to gather at the city gate. On another road, three groups of soldiers were deployed to the center of the city. They were composed of dozens of old and weak rural soldiers. These people were old, but they had all served in the army, and they were selected from those who still had the strength to farm. Except for their poor physical strength, they were relatively easy to use, much better than pure civilians; in this era, civilians were not easy to use because they had no idea how to use weapons and had no awareness of battle formations.
Soon there was a commotion in the city, most of the voices were orders. The local soldiers split into two groups, one group lined up on the spot, and a small group dispersed to the four walls. Some old and weak civilians around also followed with bamboo poles and climbed the walls from all sides.
After a while, Yang Biao, Luo Mengzi and several local soldiers and ten generals also climbed up the city wall one after another and continued to look out and watch with Guo Shao.
After waiting for a long time, the small group of cavalry outside slowly approached, a total of eight people, all riding horses. Gradually, from their armor, it was possible to roughly distinguish that they were indeed Khitans.
After the Khitan entered the Hebei region, they learned a lot from the Han people in all aspects, including armor. At first glance, they look similar, but it is still easy to find the differences. First of all, the hats are different. Han soldiers mostly wear a one-piece hood, while Khitan soldiers wear iron helmets with earmuffs. The earmuffs are like the sides of the dog-skin hat. This may be because it is colder in the Khitan area. In addition, the breastplate and the waistband are also different.
The seven or eight riders stopped moving after a hundred or two hundred steps, turned their horses around and circled the city wall again, but still did not get closer. After strolling around like this for a long time, they simply turned around and ran away.
The people on the wall were noisy and sighing for a while. Luo Mengzi laughed loudly and said: They were scared away by our battle. Yang Biao said: It is possible that they are just a scout team. Seeing that the city is surrounded by defenses and there are few people, they don’t want to rush in rashly, so they went back to report the news. Luo Mengzi said: Are they coming? Yang Biao snorted and said: You have to ask the Khitans.
Guo Shao shouted loudly: "Order everyone to rest where they are and not to leave. If nothing happens by noon, send people to the streets to call for food delivery."
It was another long wait without anything to do, but everyone seemed to be very patient. Anyone who had served in the army would understand that most of the time in a war is spent walking, working, or waiting, and there is not much time for actual fighting. So this situation is normal.
But this time the wait was not long. Before long, a large group of people appeared in sight. When he got closer, he could see the size of the enemy. There were 20 to 30 cavalrymen and a large group of infantrymen, about 120 or 150. The infantrymen were holding spears, moving like a dark forest; the cavalrymen had different long weapons, some were spears, and some were clubs with the top shaped like a large garlic. Guo Shao had served in the army for four years and knew that this thing was called a bone bud, which was a blunt weapon. In addition, it seemed that many people were equipped with bows and arrows and iron swords.
What was a bit strange was that there was a group of people in front of the enemy soldiers who seemed to be unarmed. At first glance, they looked messy. When we got closer, we confirmed that they were civilians. They were driven to walk in mourning, and from time to time whips were cracked on them, screaming and crying. There were also women among them. Obviously, the wars of this era still completely ignored women, children and civilians; it was not until mankind had endured more brutality and everyone had tasted it that they were willing to sit down and set rules.
This group of Khitan soldiers had no siege equipment, but it seemed that they would not need any equipment to attack a wall like the one in Wuqi Town.
Luo Mengzi cursed in a damn voice.
Guo Shao ignored the scolding. He felt bad now: the Khitans were not guerrillas, but a well-organized army of more than a hundred people armed to the teeth. Looking back at Wuqi Town, there were only 20 to 30 soldiers, and the rest were a bunch of old and weak people with incomplete weapons. Guo Shao suddenly felt that this battle was a bit dangerous. But there was no other way, he could only bite the bullet and deal with it. At this point, could he just raise a white flag and surrender and everything would be fine
The Khitan soldiers approached and stopped a hundred or two hundred steps away. Some civilians in front of them fell to the ground and cried bitterly, as if they saw the coffins and pits prepared for them. Three more riders rode out from the opposite side, not shouting, but just circling the city again.
Guo Shao thought to himself: Don’t look at me, I have already selected the best attack route for you.
There are walls and deep trenches on both sides, and there are traps in the trenches. Even if there is no one guarding, it is very difficult to climb over the wall; only the gate on the south side is easier, there is no pit but a road, and the gate is just a door nailed with wooden boards, broken and full of holes that let light in. Why bother to just break down the gate and let the cavalry rush in first
As expected, the Khitan soldiers did not move, but whipped and drove the people towards the city gate.
When the driven people came closer, Guo Shao and others could see clearly what they were wearing. Most of them were tattered, patched cotton and linen clothes of varying shades, some were even ragged, and they were all poor farmers. It was thought that the rich and powerful people had already fled to the towns when they heard the news, and of course they would not wait to be caught because the Khitan army had poor siege capabilities, and generally it was difficult to capture the more solid cities, so it was still safer in the towns.
Guo Shao shouted, "The whole army is in place."
After Yang Biaosui, Luo Mengzi and others responded, they went down the earth wall, and then shouted to the troops lined up inside the city gate to retreat to the streets on both sides.
At this time, the sound of bowstrings was heard outside the city. Khitan cavalrymen fired arrows randomly, shooting the people being driven away from behind. The people were terrified and screamed and cried as they ran straight to the city gate. Perhaps there were disguised Khitan soldiers among them. Wuqi Town was short of bows and arrows, so it was naturally impossible to stop the rioters from the wall. Guo Shao looked back for the last time, turned around and hurriedly jumped off the earth wall.