Chapter 73 Night Run
The sky began to darken, the noisy battlefield became quiet, and the fierce fighting gradually subsided.
The first to stop were the crossbowmen on the city. Their arms were so sore that it was difficult to fully draw the bowstring. It was also dark below the city, and the big shields, shield chariots and other bunkers were only blurred and irregular shadows. It was difficult to distinguish the ghostly figures of the thieves and archers who occasionally sneaked up next to them. After several archers who tried to find openings to shoot were shot down by cold arrows flying from the city, the defenders gave up their futile attempts.
For the city, this brief moment was actually very beneficial: the dark city wall was silhouetted against the light gray sky with a very clear outline, and the silhouettes of the defenders who were protruding their heads to attack and observe were as abrupt as silhouettes.
After several people were shot down, the defenders stopped showing up. After working hard all day, even though there were several rotations, everyone was exhausted, and no one wanted to lose their lives in a daze at this time.
There was a sound of gold ringing in the distance, and the tribesmen under the wall began to retreat in an orderly manner. The sky was dim, and under the protection of their own archers, these people no longer moved to both sides, but boldly left directly towards the south camp. The defenders on the city only symbolically threw some bricks and stones blindly across the battlements. , causing almost no substantial harm.
While retreating the attacking troops, Gao Tengdou mobilized the Feihu Camp and Feixiong Camp, who were already full and rested, to the front line and camped on the spot about two hundred steps away from the city wall. According to the plan just re-formulated by the generals, the thousands of fresh troops mobilized in the afternoon not only used wheel tactics to consume the will and physical strength of the defenders, but also made more noise during the retreat, covering the two infantry battalions that drove up in the dark. Early the next morning, a general offensive was launched across the entire front!
The city gate is blocked by huge rocks, making it difficult to break through in a short time. Although gunpowder had been widely used in the military field at this time, due to not understanding the explosion principle of enclosed spaces, too much was mixed into it based on the truth (ba) of the universe (hu) of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements (dao). The burning speed of impurities has never been increased, so it can only be used as a propellant. At most, it can be set on fire. No one in the entire Ming Dynasty knows how to use blasting. Therefore, the only way to deal with the boulder is to use animal power to drag it - this operation is impossible without 100% suppression of the firepower of the city defenders. Therefore, Guan Shengyun and others focused all their attack hopes on the four towers.
The generals agreed to launch a decisive attack on Shaanzhou City when the sky is dimly visible the next day. The city must be destroyed with one blow!
According to the plan, the auxiliary soldiers and the common people needed to charge at the same time and risk their lives to push the four towers to the bottom of the city. Each of the four units of the Feihu Camp also served as supervising the battle. The first time I used the tower, I had little experience. It was full of people, the speed was very slow, and dozens of soldiers were lost in vain. What many future generations call "common sense" is often the blood and lives of countless predecessors. exchanged. The towers that have been cleared of soldiers will move forward much faster, and it doesn't hurt to risk losing two or even three more towers in the process of taking over the city. While the tower is against the wall, the team immediately climbs it. It only needs to firmly occupy a small section of the city wall. The other teams that have lost the tower pass through the one or two surviving upper walls in order of A, B, C and D, expanding and stabilizing the front.
The auxiliary soldiers under the wall set up ladders in the area marked by the flags on the city, and the Feixiong camp climbed up the wall through the ladders.
The south gate tower and the heavily guarded south wall are in charge of the Feihu camp. After the Feixiong camp ascends the wall, teams A and B head west, and teams B and D head east. They attack along the city wall, disperse the defenders on each wall, and occupy the east and west gate towers. Then he defended on the spot and connected the friendly troops outside the city with ladders to climb up the wall.
Here at the south gate, the two teams of Feibao Camp and Gu Baihua came to the city for the third time. The order given to the Feibao Battalion was to ignore the fighting on the wall and directly attack the city along the main road towards the state government office and occupy it. Gu Baihua's task was to plant the army's black flag at the commanding heights of the city: Baolun Temple. The top of the tower completely destroyed the will of the stubborn defenders everywhere.
The Poxiao Battalion, as the general reserve team, finally went up the wall and maneuvered to where it was needed.
Gu Baisong's cavalry temporarily stayed outside the city to intercept the fleeing defenders of the city. Zhang Ding outside the east gate and Youfu Tianbe outside the west gate and other Feixiong battalions controlled two sections of the city wall and then attacked the city.
According to the earliest plan, it would take about ten days and a half to capture Shaanzhou Prefecture anyway. All the generals were mentally prepared to retreat if they really couldn't defeat them. The reason why the plan was temporarily changed and a general attack was launched the next day was based on the judgment based on two things: the defenders did not take in the people, and the city gate was blocked with stones. Obviously, not only did the defenders have no confidence at all, but the officials guarding the city had no experience and courage at all! Luo Yonghao pointed out that if such an important town was defeated in two days, the significance cannot be overstated - facing such a powerful combat power of our army, any generals who are ordered to stop the army in the future must carefully consider it in their hearts. Fan: Are you willing to let us destroy all your money?
The road ahead will obviously be much easier.
It's night.
In the mottled light and shadow cast by the torch, soldiers and civilians on the wall were lying down in uniform. The soldiers on duty for the night were walking around, casting a wary glance at the darkness outside the city from time to time.
Two old cows with bridles on their mouths were brought to the south gate, and dozens of people each bit a chopstick in their mouths - this is called biting, a very simple and effective way to keep the group quiet. Under the command of several officials, everyone began to silently and hurriedly tie the big stone bars to ropes, and then tied them to the ox yoke...
Ma Wensheng looked on with complacency, flanked by Liu Shiting who looked confident. Obviously Liu Shenxian has successfully convinced Master Ma: the great power of breaking thieves can be easily obtained.
Ma Wensheng was really scared at first and directly rejected the request for counterattack. But Liu Shiting had already understood this guy's thoughts. He easily penetrated his psychological defense line by saying "If you don't take what is given by God, you will suffer the consequences", and then he eloquently and eloquently described a story about the great thief and bandit empress, Emperor Long Yan Dayue Jin. With the beautiful blueprint of verbal praise, coupled with the "good omens" such as the thief's tower and the car crashed into ashes, Ma Wensheng not only agreed, but also happily came to "direct" in person.
Of course, even though they are far away, the highest officer must be personally commanding when he arrives at the scene. It's no wonder Master Ma is staying far away - Pan Ding, who is covered in blood, is leading the people to drag the stones, and the smell is bearable. Jing Xiangshan is directing the people to load the bricks and stones into the wooden cage with ease. The stench of the golden juice made Master Ma cover his nose and hide away.
What reassures Ma Wensheng the most is Liu Shiting's guarantee: His Liujia Divine Soldiers will leave the city at night, set up a formation outside the gate to cast spells to invite immortals, and wait until dawn the next day to take the lead in attacking the thieves! The immortals help each other, and the wind and thunder strike, destroying everything!
Although Liu Shiting patted his chest and assured that this counterattack with the help of gods would be an overwhelming victory, and the defenders could come out in full force and wipe out the thieves, Pan Ding, Wang Jian and others still did another kind of preparation.
The wooden cage was the standing cage at the entrance of the government office. Li Li from a hundred households stood alive in this kind of thing. Half of the city gate has been burned down. If the battle situation goes bad tomorrow, after the commando team withdraws, they will first use a few gate-blocking knife carts to push them to the door to block the thieves' pursuit. Then these wooden cages will be pushed behind the carts. In the doorway, they used boulders to block the gap again and seal the doorway again to buy more time.
For fear of the firelight leaking out and being exposed, no torches were lit near the city gate, and everyone was busy quietly in the dim light that was barely visible. When only the outermost few large rocks were left, two soldiers each grabbed the two ends of a black cloth and climbed up. They gently used wooden hammers to half-knock and half-press to fix the black cloth. In this way, in the dark night Even from a few dozen steps away, the abnormality at the city gate was completely undetectable.
Wang Jian's counterattack plan was to launch at dawn. According to his judgment, the thieves who came up the next day would still be mainly unarmored auxiliary soldiers like the day before. A head-on attack at this time will greatly damage the thieves' morale. If you seize the opportunity to counterattack, kill as many thieves as possible and destroy their equipment, you can at least buy more than ten days of rest time for the defenders - it will take a day or two for the thieves to gather the defeated troops, and it will take a day or two to rebuild morale. It will take longer, and it will take eight, nine or ten days to rebuild the siege equipment.
By the time the last stone was dragged away by Lao Niu, it was past the fourth watch (after three o'clock in the morning). Wang Jian, with red eyes, waved his hand and the three knife carts were pushed nearby. The wooden cage is also filled with only half of the stones - it will be difficult to push if it is fully filled, and the rest must be loaded in quickly after it has withstood the knife car.
Due to his career, Liu Shiting was not short of food and wine, so he had a pair of night eyes. Let more than 400 people line up, put their hands on the shoulders of those in front of them, and lead them back and forth, leading the people to leave the city one after another, and stand in order twenty or thirty steps outside the door... It took so much trouble to lead them out. , in fact, it provides cover for one's sneaking into the opposite side.
After leading the last guy out, Liu Shiting handed over to Ma Wensheng and others: "The common people will choose a good place to cast the spell. Please wait for the good news."
Wang Jian hurriedly returned the gift with cupped fists. Ma Wensheng glared at Pan and Jing who were not talking to each other, and said with a smile: "Old sir (in the Ming Dynasty, "old" was a sign of respect, but in fact Liu Shiting was only in his forties) please. It's done, I Officials must report to the Ming Sage, and the old gentleman should take the lead!"
Liu Shiting returned the salute in a serious manner and walked away proudly. After leaving the city, he pretended to dance in front of several groups of people, whispered a few words, gradually danced away, and in a moment disappeared from the perception world of these half-blind men.
Liu Shiting did not go directly south, but to the west. He quickly walked to the refugee camp near the river and then turned south. After walking for about half a moment, he was probably completely out of the hearing range of everyone on the wall, and then he began to call softly: "Your Majesty, the common people have come to seek refuge. Your Majesty, the common people have something important to tell you..."
Soon, several soft shouts were heard: "Stop! Who is it?" Then there was a crash of flint, and a bright light suddenly appeared ten steps away in front of him: Liu Shiting finally ran into Guan Shengyun's surrounding wall. Hidden piles.
The sudden burst of light made Liu Shiting unable to see anything for a moment. He quickly raised his sleeves to block his eyes and said: "Your Majesty, please silence me. The common people have come to seek refuge all by themselves. Don't alarm the dog officer. The common people have something important to tell you... …”
Ma Wensheng went home and slept peacefully. Pan Dingjing, Xiangshan, Wang Jian and others on the top of the city also found a relatively safe place to take a nap to restore their strength. The soldiers on night duty did indeed see the cluster of torches that exploded outside. After staring for a while, they saw that the flames did not move towards them, but disappeared into the village occupied by the thieves. They ignored it and continued patrolling.
The lights lit up in the restaurant that Guan Shengyun used as his temporary headquarters. The generals surrounded Liu Shiting, questioning me one by one. Liu Shiting knew that telling the truth was the best way to gain the trust of these demons, so he told everything in detail. At first, I wanted to hide the fact that I had buried the money, but in the end, I felt that there was no way I could figure out why I had come to seek refuge. These demons were indeed terrifying, so I decided to tell them all in one go. Alas, as long as I can escape with my life, I don’t care about anything else. Of course, preparing to run away during the chaos is absolutely out of the question.
Referring to the evidence from the battle during the day, it was not difficult for the generals to judge that Liu Shiting was telling the truth. After taking him down, everyone looked at each other and smiled: Shaanzhou City is within easy reach!
