Chapter 109 Breaking the City
On the second day, many more people came out of the city to attack Guan Shengyun than the day before, totaling 70,000 to 80,000 people. However, everyone felt that the pressure was much less. The generals knew the master's clever plan, so it was not surprising that they were confident, and the soldiers, whether they were combat soldiers or auxiliary soldiers, had high morale when they faced the battle.
Of course, no general would be stupid enough to tell his large number of soldiers and young soldiers about the strategy of breaking the city. The high morale came from several aspects: First, four thousand auxiliary soldiers with almost no training killed the menacing tens of thousands of people. Across the country, the war participants all ate the war food that night, and they were so proud that their chins were raised to the sky. After returning to the shack, no one could lie down, and those who were lying down were tossing and turning. Soon they all got up and ran to every corner of the auxiliary barracks in the light and shadow of the campfire, telling vividly about their bravery and the "thieves" - - Yes, that's what they call their opponents - the ugly appearance before death, and... tsk tsk, the piece of meat in the wooden bowl just now is so fat, the white fat is as long as three fingers. , oh no, it’s clearly four fingers thick! The four thousand people behind the second line of defense who didn't have their turn to go into battle were still eating auxiliary food. After listening to it and looking at it, it seemed that they were eager to fight, envy, jealousy... well, there was also hatred. Well, that’s right, I was so filled with hatred that I completely forgot about the fear at the beginning. Guo Qinglin had already conveyed the commander's order to the battalion and team officers, and the officers all tacitly turned a blind eye to this blatant violation of discipline that greatly helped boost morale. Secondly, today's defense line is further away from Nanyang City Pass, and the common people are harassed by the windy coming and going of the Gubai Songma Cavalry from time to time on the road, especially the disconnect caused by the difference in physical strength. They were exhausted when they entered the shooting range of the feathered arrows. Naturally, the auxiliary soldiers became more and more confident as the war progressed, so that after every arrow rain knocked down most of them, the officers had to sternly stop the eager men's desire to shoot. At this time, the soldiers of the Flying Beast Battalion, who were only wearing half-body leather armor and had enough energy, would jump out of the gaps in the small formations and stride forward. Their physical strength was completely exhausted and they could not run for more than a few steps before staggering and falling. The remaining ones were chopped to the ground mercilessly, and Shi Shiran returned just a short distance away from the next wave of people, leaving them exposed to another round of arrow rain...
In fact, it was not these that really played the biggest role, but the tragic battlefield the day before yesterday.
Those who yearn for war are always those who have never experienced war personally, because in their imaginations, they are certainly brave and will drive all thieves away. Will the thief resist? Will it be more vicious? Look around, bah! Don’t even look at how many people there are here!
After eating two mixed noodle buns, this feeling is even stronger. Under the shouts of the government officials, everyone was full of confidence and swarmed towards the camp of the thieves in the distance.
Until... they saw the horrific corpses all over the place.
The dry land had already greedily swallowed yesterday's blood, leaving only endless black and red terror marks. The cracked and tortoise-like gaps are like giant mouths of monsters, shouting silently, waiting for more blood to be shed to nourish the insatiable black abyss. Struggled and twisted into various grotesque corpses, severed hands, stumps, half-split heads, intestines flowing all over the floor... At night, the thick smell of blood attracted a large number of wild cats. At this moment, the crowd approached The sound of footsteps disturbed people, and they poked their heads out of the pile of corpses and even the abdomen of the corpse. While licking the blood stains on their lips, they looked warily at the crowd. Tangled into a ball of dirty hair, covered in blood, menacingly protruding fangs, evil eyes... This is no mythical beast, it is clearly the incarnation of the devil in hell!
Wow, wow wow, wow wow wow... Most people began to bend down and vomit, vomiting out the hard buns they had just eaten in the morning together with gastric juice and bile. The smell of sourness and blood filled the entire space.
The situation of the soap officials is not much better, but after all, they know well that they are a tool in the hands of Lord Qian - usually they are an oil ram, they must be able to squeeze out the most oil and water for the Lord, and when thieves come, they will He is the whip, and he must conscientiously drive the cannon fodder into the slaughterhouse. As long as it is useful to the adults, it means safety, so they bravely waved their sticks and drove the people in the direction of the thief.
As everyone was walking halfway, the survivors who had narrowly escaped with their lives yesterday began to struggle out of ditches and grass, and merged into the crowd again, spreading an increasingly intense sense of terror to the crowd.
Finally, the crowd, which was moving slower and slower, finally came close to the thief. Then, the red flag summoning the God of Death on the observation deck fell, and dense migratory locusts rushed towards them...
Before the sun was obscured by the mountains to the west, Qian Yuchuan received a report that the thieves were still not repelled today. However, Master Qian is not worried at all, everything is going according to plan.
Before it was time (it was past ten o'clock in the morning), Qian Yuchuan went up to the north wall and looked at it for a while. When he saw the billowing black smoke rising into the sky in the distance, a contemptuous smile appeared at the corner of his mouth: Burn it, burn it to your heart's content! Have the surrounding trees been cut down almost? Tomorrow, are you going to send people to cut down trees in the distance and bring them over to continue burning, or are you going to simply drag the rafts in the river ashore and light them on fire? How many arrows are left? Are they enough to be released later? As the saying goes, I have the cheapest and inexhaustible human life, what do you have? ! I am worried for you! Hahaha... The more I thought about it, the more proud I became, and I casually recited two lines of poetry: Instead of starving to death peacefully, I acted like a mantis with arms - why can't I just starve to death and pull him down, and I have to use the mantis' arms as a car?
This is your fate!
That’s the reason!
By noon, Qian Yuchuan was in a better mood. From the west, especially the south, more people are pouring in. A rough calculation shows that we can send out another 40,000 to 50,000 new troops tomorrow. Well, it must be that the people in the east of the city who were separated by the Feishui River finally walked downstream and tried their best to cross the river! Well, when the thieves are defeated later, a few of the people from Hedong should be selected to be commended with red and colorful decorations - if they encounter similar situations in the future, the people will know what to do! No matter how hard they live, they are all willing to go through fire and water for me!
Fight with me? snort!
In the afternoon, Master Qian's good mood was slightly affected. According to the reports from the government officials who supervised the people going out to fight, the mood of the crowd today was far less high than yesterday. The closer they got to the bandit camp, the more they shrank. There were two main reasons. One was that I was scared when I saw the corpses all over the ground. The other is that the guys who narrowly escaped death yesterday are exaggerating to show off the evil of the thieves. However, for this reason, there were not many casualties today, just over 20,000. It was not as good as yesterday, when there were still 40,000 to 50,000 people scattered by the thieves in the wilds north of the city.
Qian Yuchuan thought about it and came up with a countermeasure. After passing the order, 200 soldiers were pulled down from each wall, plus more than 400 people including his own government servants, and they were all dispersed. First, gather the common people scattered in the fields together and ask them to drag the corpses away from the ground so as not to put them there to affect the mood of the common people who will go to war tomorrow. Then let these people gather in the northwest corner and wait until tomorrow to remove the new ones who arrived today. After the people are sent out, let them follow behind. To distinguish between them, fear can no longer affect newcomers. Those who set foot on the battlefield for the first time will definitely become more confident when they see so many new troops coming behind them. Who knows, they may be able to defeat the thieves in one fell swoop tomorrow. !
Before it was time to turn on the lamp, several horses sent out for reconnaissance brought more exciting news: the defense line of the thieves no longer existed, only an unfinished wooden fence remained, and behind it were various shacks. , tent. There was no defense at all on the west side. Those who had the courage to go around and explore found no mountains of baggage. They thought they had all been transported to the boats in the river. It seemed that the thieves knew they could not defeat them and were preparing to run away. Woolen cloth!
run? Hum hum, where to run!
When the thieves are defeated tomorrow, how fast and far can the fully loaded raft travel upstream? Not to mention losing the protection of a group of thieves! These are all in my pocket! It is definitely different from the past or elsewhere. This battle is a real victory! Those thief ships in the Feishui River can be used to transport tens of thousands of thief heads to the capital! Tens of thousands of heads! This is a miracle in the two hundred years of our country! With such extraordinary achievements, shouldn't he be granted a title of marquis? The more Qian Yuchuan thought about it, the more excited he became, so he and Master Kang drafted a memorial to report the victory overnight.
The sky was just getting brighter, and Qian Yuchuan personally led people to deliver hot steamed buns mixed with a lot of white flour to the north gate to "reward the troops." Master Qian spoke impassionedly, and the people devoured their food. When Qian Yuchuan finished his frothing speech, the crowd was full of emotions and responded like a tide. Full of unwavering confidence in victory, the turbulent crowd strode towards the bandit camp in the north. .
After all, the wilderness is not an official road, and more and more people are gathering. Yesterday's defeated people who stayed in the northwest corner at night are also gradually coming in. After walking for more than an hour, everyone drove to a mile away from the thief's camp, but they still didn't see the thief coming out of the camp to form a formation. Those with good eyesight could vaguely see many small black dots running between the camp and the raft. The government officials who were holding the battle had all received orders from Mr. Qian Master Kang, and they were all overjoyed: Mr. Qian had caught his eye, and the thief was really going to escape! He let out a shout and drove the crowd to rush over.
After daylight broke out, the city gate guards opened the south gate and west gate of Nanyang Mansion again. Not long after, people coming to help in small and large groups appeared in sight one after another. This had not been the case in the past few days. Zheng Hao, the city gate officer, looked at the wall for a while, and a strange thought arose in his heart. He couldn't explain it, but he vaguely felt that something was wrong. Zheng Hao tilted his head and thought for a while, but he didn't understand. The sun warmed his body, but he felt a little sleepy. "Anyway, as long as I don't get sent out to fight against the thief, it will be fine. If I defeat the thief, Mr. Qian will always give me some reward." Zheng Hao decided not to After thinking again, he yawned, sat down against the wall, retracted his head into the shadow, stretched his legs comfortably into the sun, and took a nap.
Qian Yuchuan was also a little sleepy when he returned to the office. It was past the third watch after I finished writing the memorial last night. I was overly excited and of course I didn't sleep well. I woke up too early today. So he gave the order and went back to the back hall to relax for a while.
Although everyone ran as hard as they could, they were still half a step too slow. The excited crowd forced the thief to take just a few dozen steps and it seemed that he was within reach. Just before people's eyes, the last thief boarded the boat. The two boatmen standing at the bow and stern pushed hard with their long poles, and the boat left the shore. The boat swung to the middle of the river amidst everyone's regretful shouts and curses.
Obviously this is a thief. On the shiny iron helmet, the black tassel was about a foot long, standing proudly, obviously much taller than the thieves on the surrounding boats. As everyone watched eagerly, the thief raised his right arm high, paused for a moment, then quickly swung it down, making a threatening chopping motion towards the crowd on the shore. Immediately, a chorus of unconvinced boos erupted from the shore: "Don't run away if you can!", "If you have the guts, come up and see if grandpa doesn't strip you of your thief's skin!", "Hurry up and chase, don't let the thief escape!"...
boom!
As the thief cut off his arm, there was a deafening sound, startling everyone. Immediately, echoing whistles sounded in each boat, one after another along the winding Guishui River, gradually spreading further and further away, and lasted for a long time.
At the whistle, the thief boats began to move, one after another, setting sail one by one.
Head downstream!
The boatmen operating the boat pushed their poles, rocked the oars, and rowed the oars with all their strength, and the boat sailed faster and faster, like sparks and meteors one after another, leaving the stunned crowd behind, heading straight towards Nanyang. The government pounces!
The crowds further back in the fields on the shore to the west were completely unaware of this. Thousands of ragged villagers, still under the command of the government officials, mustered up their remaining strength and moved deep and shallow. Shouting and rushing towards the already deserted bandit camp... On a slope further to the north, Gu Baisong's horse team watched all this silently.
Zheng Hao, who was half asleep, was awakened by a burst of noise. Before he opened his eyes, he smelled a strong smell of smoke in his nose. As soon as he stood up, he saw billowing black smoke filling the air. When I ran to the inner wall and looked towards the city, I couldn't help but freeze on the spot: in Nanyang Mansion, raging fires were burning in twenty or thirty places, and there were people screaming and running everywhere, bumping into each other like headless flies.
There is also the shining light of the sword!
The sword light that flashed from time to time in the smoke suddenly cut through the fog that had just covered his eyes. Zheng Hao finally remembered what was wrong earlier: there were many young people among the crowd entering the city today, although their clothes were equally tattered. , but the walking posture, especially the strong body, is completely different from other people! When he struggled to look further away from the city, Zheng Hao's mood completely collapsed - the endless rafts in the water were riding the wind and waves, heading straight towards the city like sharp arrows! Approaching the shore, every boat and raft emitted a cold light, flashing towards the north wall. Not long after...
The gate tower on the north wall begins to burn!
At the same time, shouts of "Run for your life" and "The thieves have broken through the city" erupted in his ears. Before Zheng Hao, who could hardly move, turned around reluctantly, he caught a glimpse of the open space between Jishui and Baihe to the south. , the sea of swords and guns rushing toward his feet.
[Stop for two days on weekends. If you think it's good, please forward it. The more readers you have, the more motivated you will be to write. Thank you. 】
