The sword hit the armor but failed to break it. The blade was already bent and the force was not enough. The Zhou army man holding the sword was panting like a bellows, his palms were numb, his arms were sore, and he used his sword to hit the screaming Northern Han soldier, causing him to scream in pain.
The walls were so crowded that it was difficult to even turn around. The soldiers fighting in the front were exhausted, but they could not retreat. The soldiers on both sides were wearing armor, so it took a lot of force to kill the other side. Every attack was made with all their strength, and their physical strength was consumed very quickly. The Northern Han army was almost collapsed by the killing. If they had not been so routed that they had nowhere to escape, the front army would have been defeated long ago.
More and more Zhou army infantry were organized onto the city wall, forming a solid array. Below the city wall, countless square formations were ready to attack, and archers were shooting at the crowd of Northern Han soldiers above the city wall.
Ah, soldiers of the Northern Han army were continuously pushed down from the city wall. Black objects on the more than three-meter-high city wall fell to the ground with a bang, and shouts of fear were heard in the air.
At this time, the scene on the city wall was very crazy. The dense crowd of Northern Han soldiers were being hacked and stabbed desperately in front. The people had lost their will and were desperately retreating and crowding backwards. The Zhou army soldiers in front were squeezing and pushing forward frantically. The crowd of Northern Han soldiers was getting denser and denser, and they completely lost their formation.
The crowd was filled with terror. Many people were pushed down and never got up again. They were trampled by countless heavy men, and some were even trampled to death. Those behind them squeezed in and cried and shouted without asking for mercy. The panicked crowd and the atmosphere of fear spread like a plague.
Some people were pushed and crowded to the point of vomiting. Almost all the soldiers of the Northern Han army were filled with fear and panic. They even wanted to run but there was nowhere to run! Help, help! Someone was trapped on the women's wall. The huge pushing force pressed down on him. His eyes bulged, and his weapons were nowhere to be found.
In some places, the parapet had collapsed due to artillery fire, and the soldiers standing on the edge were directly pushed down the wall. The wall was as high as three or four stories, and they were almost killed if they fell down. One soldier grabbed the edge of the wall when he was pushed down, but his hands were immediately trampled back and forth by heavy boots. He cried and screamed horribly, and finally slid down along the wall.
The morale of the Zhou army was even higher. The general shouted in the chaos: It's time to avenge our brothers. It's time to kill, kill!
A senior general at the army level came to the top of the city wall and began to organize the offensive tactics. He ordered all the troops to make room on the east side of the city wall to stop the troops below from rushing to the city. After a lot of trouble, they finally organized the order of rotating attacks. The soldiers in the front who were exhausted were shouted to retreat from the gaps in the queue at the back and take turns to attack.
The Northern Han army was completely unable to implement this tactic at this time. They were in chaos, and the gaps in the ranks were filled with crowds, making it impossible to move forward.
The pressure of the crowd on the city wall finally spread like dominoes to the ramp of the city. The entire wall and ramp were full of infantry. The scope of the two sides' fighting was very limited. They were all pushing and shoving. It didn't look like a battle, but like two groups of people competing in strength. But such a competition was not to see who was stronger, because the panicked Northern Han soldiers in front would retreat and put pressure on their own people.
The words "Long live the emperor of the Great Zhou" were not shouted by the Zhou army, but by the Northern Han army. Surrender, surrender!
There was no Northern Han army general to stop the riot or enforce the law because it was too crowded and order was completely lost.
At the west end of the wall, a large group of Northern Han soldiers on another ramp attacked the Zhou army on the wall. But at this time, the Zhou army was already in a square formation. They had heavy armored crossbowmen in front and divine arms in the back. Bows and crossbows fired arrows one after another like raindrops. The crossbowmen used a three-stage attack tactic, and the long-range arrows were continuous, causing heavy casualties to the Northern Han army.
The battle is gradually getting out of control
Many Northern Han soldiers formed a human wall at the bottom of the ramp to block the crowd in front of them that was constantly being pushed back. When they couldn't stop them, the boots of the soldiers in the human wall slid on the brick floor.
A row of law enforcement officers holding red tasseled broadswords stood in the back with angry eyes. The general of the Northern Han army looked at the scene above anxiously, and hesitated to issue the law enforcement order. Those who retreated in the battle would be beheaded, but who would be beheaded? Those who were close to the rear did not want to retreat on their own, but were forced back by the huge and noisy crowd in front. Even if they were beheaded, it would be useless.
Soon the crowd on the ramp began to jump over the railings, screaming and groaning, and the crowd was in turmoil. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and a large group of people fell down together, falling to the ground in large numbers.
Ahhhh the screams were deafening.
The panicked crowd in front immediately jumped up and trampled on the people lying on the ground and ran down. Some of the uninjured people who fell also struggled to their feet, stepping on people and crawling away.
The Zhou army's advance suddenly became easier, and the sound of killing shook the sky. They rushed forward with all their might, trampling countless people to death on the ground, and occasionally being stabbed or shot by the Zhou army soldiers. The scene on the ramp was horrible. Next to the brick and stone railing, a soldier of the Northern Han army had a distorted face, covered in blood, and his mouth was wide open, with flesh or some kind of internal organs stuck in his mouth. There was also a piece of intestine on the ground, which tripped a Zhou soldier from time to time.
The air was filled with a complex, disgusting smell of gunpowder, blood, and stench.
At the bottom of the slope, the collapse of the army frightened the general of the Northern Han Dynasty and he shouted: "Kill those who escape!"
The big men of the law enforcement team heard the military order and swung their swords to chop down anyone who ran. A large number of Northern Han soldiers were hacked to death by the law enforcement team, but no one resisted; perhaps it was due to the accumulated prestige of the generals, or it could be that no one organized a resistance. It was impossible for a general to organize troops to resist his own commander in battle. People still followed the crowd, and few people would do anything alone at this time.
But the Zhou army soldiers in front were killing crazily, and the people behind were killing each other in a bloody storm. Finally, someone got angry in despair, and a Northern Han soldier picked up a bow and arrow and shot an arrow at a big man who was chopping people with a broadsword. From the high ground on the slope, the shot was very accurate, hitting the big man right in the middle of his eyebrows. He fell backwards without a sound, and the broadsword fell to the ground with a clang.
The soldier who shot the arrows shouted: "Stop our bastards and let them go to the front to kill Zhou Jun!"
Someone immediately roared in anger: Retreating from the battlefield, resisting military orders, and committing treason!
It would have been better if he hadn't roared. As soon as he roared, some of the angry and desperate Northern Han soldiers shouted: Whoever rebels is willing to die!
Outside the ramp, the soldiers of the Northern Han army under the city wall threw down their weapons and knelt down to surrender. At first, only a few people did so, but the morale of the soldiers, who were already angry and afraid, dropped to the extreme, and they followed suit one after another, and countless people surrendered.
The front troops of the Zhou army rushed down the slope in a scattered manner, while the troops behind them who were not in disorder trotted down the slope in an orderly manner. The slope, which was originally quite spacious, was simply horrible to look at. It was densely packed with corpses and blood, like a slaughterhouse.
A general of the Zhou army led several soldiers to the kneeling surrendered soldiers and said immediately: Those who do not want to work for the Northern Han king, go and find a place to hide first, don't block the road.
After hearing this, the Northern Han surrendered soldiers threw away their armor and weapons and began to flee one after another.
The general of the Zhou army who arrived later seemed to have realized something and hurriedly sent his personal soldiers to spread public opinion and incite the Northern Han army reinforcements in the streets of the city to find an opportunity to escape.
On the wall beside the earthen hill outside the city, a general shouted: Fifth Commander, get on the wall!
The neatly lined troops waiting below climbed up the dirt hill in rows. The walls were full of Zhou troops running in formation. The fight had ended, and the troops below knew at a glance that they had entered the city. The soldiers on the wall were no longer as panicked as before, and the troops were very disciplined, marching in an orderly manner according to the military orders of the generals.
This section of the wall is close to the South Gate Tower. A large number of Zhou troops climbed up the wall from the gap and quickly occupied the Wengcheng Gate and the main tower along the wall, and then went down along the tower to occupy the Wengcheng Gate. The Wengcheng wall is slightly shorter than the main wall, as if it was an independent curved wall built outside the city, and the gate was also opened on the side.
When the soldiers arrived at the city gate, they found that there was a thick pile of large stones behind the gate that had already blocked the city wall.
But as soon as the news spread out of the city, a group of people carrying iron crowbars, hemp ropes and wooden sticks rode up from the back and were mobilized to climb the wall. They drove to the back of the city gate and started to work, prying the stone slabs to the side one by one. Some people tied the stone slabs with ropes and carried them away.
The generals and ministers of the Central Army in the distance were stunned when they saw the Zhou army flags on the tower. Wang Pu said in a lost voice: "This is how we took Jinyang by force." His tone was trembling with excitement.
Guo Shao was also very excited. It had only been half a day since the general attack was launched, and the victory was indeed quite sudden. He took a deep breath and turned around and said: Immediately, the Sixth Army of the Tiger Guards stopped the attack at the bombing site.
Get the order
Guo Shao looked back at Gao Yanchou and spoke clearly: "The infantry of the Jiannan Army should prepare to approach the gap according to the number sequence and prepare to enter the city one after another. The main attack direction of the troops in the city will be the South City Gate first. The specific tactics can be decided on the spot. The troops should follow the pre-war strategy. The first step is to open the city gate; the second step is to attack the Northern Han Dynasty's imperial city; the third step is to occupy all the city gates."
Gao Yanchou clasped his fists and bowed, saying, "I obey your command." Then he kicked the horse's belly, turned the horse's head, and left the central army with a bang.
Guo Shao quickly issued a military order: Ask the front camp military headquarters to convey the military order, and all the cavalry in the south camp of the city to gather at the city gate. He pointed to a military commander of the Huben Army beside him, Li Dazhu, you go to the front of the city gate and be the commander of the battle formation.
Li Dazhu clasped his fists and saluted: I have received your order.
Guo Shao said: I will follow the cavalry into the city and command the troops in the city. Envoy Wang will stay in the central army and be in charge of the overall situation outside the city.
Wang Pu bowed and said: "I accept your order.