Chapter 59 Lonely City
Ma Wen Shengzhan on the top of the city cautiously held the crenel with both hands and peeked half of his head out of the city to take a quick look. He was worried that the rebels below the city would suddenly fire a thousand arrows at him, so he immediately retreated. . I hid behind the crenel and waited for a while, but I didn't hear the sound of arrows breaking through the air. There was no rain of locusts above my head, and there was no sound of arrows being nailed to the wall. I became a little braver and explored again. Come out and take a closer look.
At this sight, I couldn't help but be amazed: less than half of the bandit's troops (Gu Baihua's Gangfeng Battalion) had crossed the river. As soon as they stepped on the river bank, the two-way column formed a unit of troops, behind the small formation of four cavalry units. They gathered in the gaps to form solid square formations one after another. An enemy general (Gu Baihua) rode forward on horseback and stood side by side with the enemy generals in front of the horse formation. The two thieves were talking softly, looking up at the city from time to time, and pointing with their sabers and spears; 56 Ten small boats guarded both sides of the pontoon. The thieves on board looked ferocious, waving weapons and shouting at the city. On the other side of Qinglong Stream, there was a gathering place for thieves to cross the river. Groups of thieves were making a fuss amid the shouts of their respective leaders. The team formed on the ground; further away, there was an endless stream of bandits, one after another turning out from the mountain bends and valley bottoms, joining the assembly area, preparing to cross the river.
Ma Wensheng watched all of this in horror. His knuckles that were clasping the crevices were turning white, so he barely restrained his body from shaking too obviously. His mind was completely confused. He didn't know what countermeasures to take or what orders to issue. He just stared at it dumbfounded. The thieves drove over in groups in an orderly manner.
Ma Wensheng returned his gaze to the city again and saw that the bandits formed six solid square formations. The thief with the gun said something to the one holding the sword. The latter pointed his saber in the air and said something. Whistling, the horse took the lead and started trotting southward. One after another, the four cavalry formations followed behind. The horses' hooves raised a large cloud of smoke and dust, rolling forward.
"kill!"
There was a loud shout, which shocked Ma Wensheng. I saw the thief general holding the gun swinging his lance, and the thief soldiers all let out a loud shout, and then stepped forward, their armor clanging, and they advanced to the position of the cavalry just now, forming a semicircle with four in front and two behind. The west gate was blocked tightly.
"Master Ma! Master Ma! Think of a countermeasure!" At some point, Pan Ding had already walked beside him, and his anxious voice woke Ma Wensheng out of his trance.
"Are the city gates closed?" Ma Wensheng ignored Pan Ding and asked the soldiers in a hissing voice with a red face.
"My lord, all four gates are unlatched." The soldiers who ran back panting to return to their duties replied in a flurry of words. From time to time they stood on tiptoe and peeked out of the city, their faces as pale as paper.
"Dog! Block it up, block it with big rocks, block it all with me! Come on, hurry up, hurry up!"
"Call all the dead Qiu eight to this government, everyone who can breathe! Come up to the city wall and guard it! Anyone who can't stand is a traitor and will be killed without mercy!"
"Send someone to Xin'an to ask for help! Go to Fucheng to ask for help. Why are you dawdling around? Go quickly!"
Ma Wensheng kept shouting as he thought, and everyone on the wall was in chaos. After a while, someone woke up and said: "Sir, the city gates were locked just now! How about you give me an order to open them and then close them when the messenger comes out?"
"Asshole! Don't open the door! Block them all! You, you, you, and you, you go out from the south of the city to deliver the message!"
"Sir, you have to ride a horse to deliver a message! You can run hundreds of miles on two legs, but you can't miss a mile."
"Idiot, then ride a horse!"
"Sir, people can hang down from the wall, but horses can't! You still have to open the door..."
"Shut up, you dog-killer! Don't open the door! What if the thieves rush in? There are so many cavalry, are your two dog eyes blind? I don't care what method you use, recruit from the people and collect thieves from Rob over there, ah, yes, don’t the thieves have horses? Isn’t it your duty to kill the enemy and serve the country! Go quickly, go quickly, and I’ll kill you if you wait too long! Come back after the incident is over, and I will give you a lot of rewards!”
The unlucky ones who were pointed at by Ma Wensheng shrank back and walked toward the south wall.
"Lord Ma." After Li Bin was killed, the position of Hongnongwei commander had been vacant. After hearing the news, the commander Wang Jian hurried over. "I have gathered all the brothers in this humble position. Please give me your orders, Lord Ma."
"What the hell are you waiting for? Come here! The thieves come up and hit them hard!" Ma Wensheng said anxiously. Then he remembered something, dropped Wang Jian, and shouted at the backs of those unlucky guys, "Wait a minute. ! I will watch you go down with my own eyes! No one can escape from the battle!" He picked up the hem of his official robe and hurriedly chased after him.
The civil and military officials Pan, Jing, and Wang on the wall looked at each other, sighed, and shook their heads. Everyone has vaguely felt that with such a boss in the stall, Shaanzhou may not have much hope.
Gu Baisong detached a hundred cavalry and rushed straight to the east gate. According to Luo's military division's order, they occupied the ferry they didn't know if there would be one, blocking the Yellow River traffic. At the same time, he was temporarily responsible for blocking the east gate before the troops came over, while he himself He led the rest of the horse team to drive south along the river of Qinglong Stream, passing the village in the distance, and then turned back and headed north.
Just now at the city gate, Gu Baihua told Gu Baisong to try not to kill anyone unless absolutely necessary. Gu Baihua is by no means a philanthropic person who shows love indiscriminately. His worldview is very simple: If you treat me well, I will treat you better. But he has never had any great feelings to save the working people in the slightest. Since he has embarked on the road of no return as a thief, he will die in the wilderness sooner or later, so he has no scruples about murder, arson, etc. However, there is a red thread in his heart : You should behave like a man - whoever bullies young and old women is not a man!
However, these have nothing to do with his instructions to Gu Baisong and Mo Pingbai to kill people. When he arrived at the city, looking at the majestic Shaanzhou city wall, he suddenly thought that when launching an attack, lifting ladders, pushing carts, digging holes in walls, etc. were all the tasks of the auxiliary soldiers. The unarmored auxiliary soldiers would inevitably fail under the attack of defensive firepower from the city head. Huge casualties were incurred. Although the auxiliary troops of Guoqinglin are essentially cannon fodder, they have been together for so long that they can almost be considered half of our own people - why not let strangers outside the city do the work of sacrificing lives with no contact with them? ? Therefore, he asked Gu Baisong to keep as many people as possible to fill in the trenches later.
The cavalry stood still in the south of the village and formed a loose horizontal formation. After waiting for about an incense stick, he saw a few stars reflected in the northwest sunlight in the distance. Gu Baisong knew that those were the reflections of the swords and guns of his brother Gangfeng Battalion's troops - presumably the large army had already crossed the river, Gu Baisong Bai Hua began to change defenses and was heading south to set up an ambush at Kip Shek Pass. At the command, the formation started trotting. The armored cavalry waved their lances, shouted threats, headed north, and began to drive the people towards the city.
Gu Baisong led twenty bodyguards with superb riding skills to march forward for a certain distance, and stood on a small slope. After riding on the line, they made up for the leaks. From a high position, they looked down and coldly at the people who were waking up from a dream and crying, Supporting the old and young, they rushed towards the south gate of Shaanzhou. The cavalrymen behind the common people opened a half-moon arc that slightly protruded forward on the east and west sides, shouting loudly and bluffingly to drive them away. The trot had changed to a slow walk, and they drove the common people northward in a leisurely manner. The cavalry line drawn by more than a hundred cavalry is inevitably loose. When the armored cavalry at the rear on the hillside find someone who has missed the pass, one or two cavalry will ride over to intercept them and drive them back to the crowd...
Gu Baisong's attention was attracted by a large plume of black smoke coming from the northeast: The military advisor was really clever. It seemed that there really was a ferry to the east, and it was already lit at this moment. Now, the city of Shaanzhou was surrounded like an iron barrel. Gu Baisong couldn't help but look at the city wall. Suddenly, Gu Baisong found a few small black spots on the wall - someone was lowering the city wall!
The strength of the armored cavalry was already stretched thin. The reason why so many people were left behind to provide support was because Gu Baisong was worried that the city would send cavalry to risk their lives to break through the encirclement and break through the thin layer of loose cavalry circles to run out to deliver messages! The responsibilities on the shoulders of these dozen or twenty people are not easy.
How could he lower the wall and leave the city? Could it be that the city gate was locked at this time? Even if the door is closed, the messenger must be allowed out of the city first! After careful planning, there were only more than 200 cavalrymen who crossed first. How could such a small number of people go to seize the city gate? What were the dog officers afraid of? The cavalry rushes through the plains at high speed and rushes to the city with many obstacles. Are they serving as targets for the spearmen and infantry archers? Are those dog officials on the city head all blind and fools?
In a flash of thought, he pointed the long knife in his hand at several black figures on the wall and let out a long roar. No longer caring about the civilians who passed by, Gu Baisong led his guards to rush toward the messengers.
Pan Ding, Jing Xiangshan, Wang Jian and others on the city wall stopped paying attention to Ma Wensheng and went about their business. Pan and Jing organized the people to transport bricks, stone doors, panels, water basins and other defensive materials to the top of the city. Wang Jian loudly issued orders and sent soldiers to each wall. Due to the long period of peace and the fact that Ma Wensheng had severely damaged the vitality of the battalion, the original chain of command had been fragmented and completely broken. Wang Jian could only temporarily rebuild the command system: there must be at least three soldiers and five soldiers behind each crenel. There is a stack leader at the entrance of the stack, a commander is appointed above the three stack leaders, and a temporary commander is appointed for each wall... From top to bottom, everyone he knows is assigned to their posts, but the manpower is still far from enough. Wang Jian could only seize some decent-looking guys on the spot to serve as temporary grassroots non-commissioned officers such as stack commanders. Although he had never fought in many battles, after all, he had been in the army for decades, and Wang Jian had also deducted a few soldiers. With a reserve team of a hundred people in hand, he knew that this hard battle would not last for a day or two, and he had to leave some back-up to fight at the critical moment.
Ma Wensheng stood on the south wall, staring at the soldiers as they tied long ropes around the waists of the four unlucky men and slowly lowered them down. Of course, he also saw the people rushing toward him in the distance. However, Master Ma was not thinking about that at all at the moment. He only hoped that these guys would run out immediately and quickly bring the reinforcements back. Li kept cursing and urging.
After a few guys landed, Ma Wensheng held his hands on the crenel and stared at their running backs. He was almost close to the rushing crowd. Suddenly, a dozen thieves rode over the common people and rushed toward the messengers. Ma Wensheng was so anxious that he waved his hands and stamped his feet on the wall and shouted for them to turn away. However, there were noisy shouts everywhere. The messengers could neither hear Master Ma's shouts nor have Master Ma's panoramic view from above. Continue The cavalrymen faced the thieves and ran with their heads down.
The guy who ran the fastest suddenly looked up and saw the thief riding a dozen feet away, turned around and ran towards the east. However, how could a two-legged man outrun a four-legged war horse? It took just a few breaths to catch up. The enemy cavalry slowed down and trotted next to this guy. He stretched out his spear and looked like he was going to capture him alive. Seeing the tip of a spear emerging next to him, the guy turned back and ran north again. The thief cavalry chased him again and once again stretched out his lance to threaten. Although he was out of breath, the guy turned sharply to the west again... Obviously, the thief was angered and had murderous intentions. He put the bluffing lance in his hand under his ribs and mounted his horse again - this time without slowing down. He passed right by him, and in the blink of an eye he nailed his lance to the man's back, passing through his chest. The guy fell to the ground, grabbing the dirt on the ground in vain with both hands. He glared with his legs a few times and kicked off one shoe. Then, the kicking turned into twitching, and gradually he stopped moving.
The knight turned his horse back, dismounted, pulled out his saber and beheaded him with one blow (Guan Shengyun did not have a system of decapitating skills here. The beheading skills were rewarded by the general according to his mood, and there was no need to report for approval at all levels to inspect the Adam's apple, so there was no need to do it like the formal method). (like the army), he rode on the headless corpse, pulled out his lance, put the head on the tip of the lance, got on his horse, galloped to the bottom of the city, waved it for a while, and then galloped back.
Ma Wensheng opened his mouth and watched in horror. Then he was even more horrified to find that the other three guys had stopped running, holding their heads in their hands and kneeling on the ground. The thief holding the knife stopped his horse and said something. The three guys lying on the ground straightened up and started talking over each other. From time to time, they pointed at themselves on the city wall with their fingers...
Damn bastard! Why don’t you know how to sacrifice your life to serve your country? We must find all their relatives and behead them as a warning to others! Ma Wensheng thought angrily, and then he saw the thief general looking at him.
The thief's vision is very complex. Is it contempt? Is it a mockery? Or rebellious?
neither!
It's murderous intent!
It was a strong killing intent.
When their eyes met, Ma Wensheng couldn't help but shudder, and a chill came from the bottom of his heart.
The bandit's cavalry has completely blocked the south side, and the billowing smoke from the east ferry indicates that Shaanzhou Prefecture has become an isolated city at this time.
