The sudden sound of war drums outside the city made the already heavily guarded Yingzhou City Wall even more alert!
There were only 200,000 soldiers and horses in the city, while there were 800,000 elite troops outside the city. Everyone on the city wall had their hearts in their throats.
Even Liu Mingzhi couldn't help but become nervous. This defense of the city might be the first time he had encountered such a large-scale battle in his previous life.
I don’t know how many of the 200,000 brothers behind me will survive this battle.
The sound of war drums outside the city became more and more intensive, and it was also mixed with the sound of attack horns. The scattered coalition forces outside the city gradually gathered together, and the flags of their own phalanx began to be arranged spontaneously.
A phalanx of 800,000 tigers and wolves gathered outside Yingzhou City. Everyone's scalp was numb when they saw it, and their hearts were bottomless!
Zhang Kuang and others also rode up to the sound of drums and climbed onto the city wall with eager expressions.
Looking around at the endless soldiers and horses outside the city, everyone's expressions were extremely solemn.
Liu Mingzhi slowly drew out the Heavenly Sword from his waist and stared at the flag outside the city.
"Convey the order and all generals will perform their duties."
"The gunners load, the crossbows are cocked, the archers prepare, and the remaining muskets and rockets that can be used are all transported to the city wall. No matter what, we must resist the enemy for three days and wait for our reinforcements to come to support!"
"We have the order!"
A group of generals held the command flag and began to run towards the city wall. From their positions, the commander's brothers defended themselves.
After a few sticks of incense, the sound of war drums outside the city reached its peak, and a melodious and passionate horn sounded from the army formation.
After the formation was completed, the allied forces of the two countries rolled up long dragons of smoke and dust and charged towards the four gates of Yingzhou City.
On the city wall, Liu Mingzhi looked at each other wildly, and they both saw the confusion in each other's eyes.
With the eyes of the two of them, they could tell at a glance that one group of soldiers and horses had about 50,000 soldiers and horses, and the four groups of soldiers and horses had at least 200,000 soldiers and horses.
However, what puzzled the two men was that all the 200,000 soldiers and horses were cavalry. Using cavalry to attack the city would not be a waste of death, but it would not be of much use.
No matter how fast the cavalry attacks, they can't reach the city wall!
"Commander Liu, you may have seen the enemy's intention. Two hundred thousand cavalry are coming up to encircle our Yingzhou. What kind of plan is this? The general is completely confused!"
Liu Mingzhi shook his head in confusion: "You can't understand, and neither can I. No matter how powerful the cavalry is, they can't fly above the city wall!"
Looking at the enemy troops getting closer and closer, Liu Mingzhi shook his head helplessly.
"When soldiers come, we will block it, and when water comes, we will cover it with soil. Let brothers be on alert and be ready to fight back at any time!"
"Whether they are cavalry or infantry, we must not let them break into the city!"
"Got the order!"
Zhang Kuanggang held up the order flag and went to convey the order. More than 600,000 soldiers and horses from the two countries' joint forces also rushed towards Yingzhou under the guidance of the order flag.
Liu Mingzhi frowned and looked at the situation outside the city. He didn't even try any tests. Did the entire army attack?
Neither Huyan Yunyao nor Wanyan Chizha should be so reckless. Although Yingzhou City is large, it is very difficult to gather 800,000 troops at once.
Eight hundred thousand people gathered under the city, and the soldiers and horses on the city wall did not need to pay much attention to defense. Just a stampede on one's own side was enough to make the two countries' combined forces drink a pot.
Liu Mingzhi really couldn't figure out the intentions of Huyan Yunyao and Wanyan Zhai and the others, so he could only wait and see what happened, staring closely at the movement of the army outside the city without even daring to blink.
Liu Mingzhi looked at the vanguard cavalry who had rushed to a position no more than 300 steps away from the city wall and waved the order flag in their hands.
"Fire with the crossbow, lower the angle of the artillery by two inches, wait for the enemy to reach 260 steps, and quickly open fire to bombard their follow-up troops!"
"Got the order!"
"The commander-in-chief has given orders, fire crossbows, lower the artillery..."
Following the shouts of the messengers, the eight-niu crossbows that had already been cocked on the four walls were fired, and the thick arrow shafts shot through the air towards the densely packed cavalry.
Facing the dense crossbows on the city wall, many unfortunate soldiers from the two countries were hit by the thick crossbows, and were carried away by the remaining force of the crossbows, knocking many of their comrades off their horses and becoming dead souls.
The gunner of the artillery estimated the distance and was about to light the fire. The four cavalrymen unanimously began to change their directions, detouring towards both sides, and gradually distanced themselves from the city wall.
The gunner who was about to light the fire hurriedly put away the torch. The enemy was already out of range. It was a complete waste of shells to fire at this time. There was no shortage of supplies in Yingzhou, but it was not too abundant.
Liu Mingzhi looked at the coalition cavalry parked outside the city outside the shooting range with a confused expression, wondering what the enemy was up to.
They charged for a while, killed a few people, and then stopped charging. What kind of strategy was this?
Zhang Kuang hurriedly ran over and stopped beside Young Master Liu: "Shuai Liu, the enemy troops at the other three city gates are the same as those at the north gate. What do they want to do?"
"A charge of two hundred thousand cavalry, just to give some battle achievements to the brothers?"
Liu Mingzhi shook his head silently and repeated what he had just said.
"there is always a solution to a problem!"
"Commander, look at the direction of those enemy infantry, they don't seem to be encircling us in Yingzhou!"
After hearing this, Liu Mingzhi hurriedly looked up, and this time he discovered that the two wings of the 600,000-strong army following the vanguard cavalry had not stopped moving toward the encirclement of Yingzhou. Instead, they followed the banner and continued to approach the south.
It looked like they had completely ignored Yingzhou's existence.
Liu Mingzhi subconsciously took out his telescope and glanced at the former camp of the Jin Army in Shanhaiguan. When he saw that only messy footprints were left, the camp was lost for a moment.
Recalling what Zhang Kuang had said before, Liu Mingzhi muttered for a moment and his face changed with shock. He seemed to understand the enemy's plan.
"Quick, follow me to the south city wall!"
After Liu Mingzhi said that, he put away his telescope and ran towards the south wall, so fast that he even used Qinggong.
Zhang Kuang followed Liu Mingzhi without hesitation and rushed toward the south wall. His figure leapt and hung behind Liu Mingzhi. He knew that Liu Mingzhi must have guessed the enemy's intention.
After a cup of tea, the two people, with their faces not red and their hearts still not beating, stopped at the guarding position of Xiong Kaishan on the south city wall.
"At the end of the day, I will see the general, and I will see Liu Shuai."
"Excuse me, did the enemy army not stop and continue southward?"
Xiong Kaishan nodded hurriedly and pointed at the coalition flag outside the city.
"Shuai Liu, Lord Marquis, it seems that the enemy does not want to attack our Yingzhou City, but bypasses our Yingzhou and continues southward."
At this moment, Zhang Kuang also realized Hu Yanjunyao's intention, and his eyes scanned the 200,000 cavalry outside the city in fear.
"They want to encircle Yingzhou and attack our capital in the hinterland!"
Liu Mingzhi nodded silently and hammered the city wall hard several times.
"They occupy the magpie's nest and use defense as offense. They know that their troops are inferior to ours, and they want to take advantage of the arrival of reinforcements to forcefully reverse the geographical advantage we have!"
"What should we do? Do we need to go out of the city to intercept them? Otherwise, with the strength of the government soldiers and left and right guards in the hinterland state capital, they can easily invade our fifteen cities in northern Xinjiang within three days!"
Liu Mingzhi looked at the soldiers and horses outside the city with complicated eyes.
"They are so confident that they are blatantly forcing us to go out of the city to fight."
"Look at the speed of the enemy troops heading south. They are obviously waiting for us to leave the city!"
"Two hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand!"
"What's our chance of winning? Fifty percent? Thirty percent?"
Zhang Kuang stared blankly at Liu Mingzhi's sad face and fell silent.
Not to mention 50%, 30%, 10% chance of winning is God’s fault!
The disparity in military strength is too great!
