Chapter 172 Raging Waves
The soldiers on the west wall hesitated, and gradually gathered around under the orders of their respective officers. From time to time, some secretly cast a frightened glance outside the city, and then crowded together, standing with hunched shoulders and lowered heads.
Seeing that hundreds of people had gradually gathered around him, Zhu Gongzhen spoke slowly: "The thing I want to talk about happened in the late Western Jin Dynasty. At that time, the world was in chaos, such as the Eight Kings Rebellion and the Five Husbands Chaos. In short, all kinds of things were happening everywhere. There were many battles, big and small, with people from all walks of life fighting back and forth all day long. The people were displaced and mourned everywhere. Not far from us, in Wancheng, Nanyang, the guard was named Xunsong. One spring, when the harvest was not picking up, Wancheng is surrounded by thieves. There are only more than a thousand defenders in the city. What about the thieves?" As he spoke, King Zhou glanced outside the city, took a breath and continued, "They are about the same number as the thieves outside today."
Hearing this, the soldiers' eyes widened in horror. They looked outside the city one after another, then looked at each other, and looked at each other. There was a buzzing discussion in the crowd.
King Zhou raised his hands and pressed them down, signaling for everyone to listen: "The thieves took advantage of the large number of people and attacked day and night. Xun Song led the defenders to fight against the enemy because they saw that there was already a sea of fire outside the city. Well, the scene was the same as today. If the thieves broke in, neither you nor your family, friends, or anyone else would be spared. Fortunately, the wall was high and the trench was deep. , and did not break through the city wall." At this point, everyone's expressions were relieved, but what King Zhou said later made their hearts hang up again, "However, at this time, the bows, arrows, masonry and other defensive equipment have been almost used up. It’s all gone. What’s even worse is that the food in the city is almost running out!”
"Xun Song decided to send people to Xiangyang to ask for help. However, Wancheng was surrounded by thieves like an iron barrel. Going out to ask for help was like risking death. Xun Song held a military meeting and everyone discussed it for a long time, but no one dared to give a military order. In desperation, Xun Song decided to break out of the encirclement himself and ask for help."
"Ah! The Lord is leaving the city, how can this be done?" Small exclamations broke out from the crowd again.
"Yes." Zhu Gongzhen continued, "How can we defend the city if the general leaves? At this moment, a man broke into the lobby and volunteered to go out to Xiangyang at the third watch to ask for help. Xun Song hesitated for a long time, and finally Still agreed. Don't worry, why did Xun Song hesitate? I'll talk about it later. Xun Song assigned this man a dozen of his own guards. That night, everyone tied up the horses first and put bits on their mouths. Slowly go down to the city, and then these people will get off the wall one after another."
"These people got off the wall, used daggers to cut the ropes that bound the horses, and one by one quietly climbed onto their horses, preparing to sneak through the gaps where the thieves were laxly guarded." The crowd listened attentively, not daring to express their anger, as if they themselves I was afraid of waking up the thief as if I was there. Zhu Gongzhen continued: "However, I don't know who it was in the darkness. Maybe because I couldn't see clearly, maybe because I was nervous. When I was cutting the rope, I accidentally cut the bit on the horse's mouth! Think about it, that horse Being lowered from such a high wall, I was really frightened, and as soon as I let go of my mouth, I immediately started to hiss!"
At this point, the crowd burst into exclamations. Then there was a chorus of scoldings: "Shut up! Listen to the prince!"
Zhu Gongzhen nodded and continued: "As soon as the horses barked, the thieves' sentries outside the city naturally discovered them, and the police whistles sounded one after another. They had to force their way in, and more than a dozen people simply shouted in unison and rushed into the battle risking their lives! The signs on the wall The defenders, led by Xun Song, also beat drums to cheer them up. In the dark night, the thieves thought that the defenders were leaving the city to steal the camp, and there was a big chaos. These warriors knew that the only way to rush out was to kill gods if they were blocked by gods, and kill if they were blocked by Buddha. "Buddha, let's not talk about the danger. When we finally broke through the enemy's formation, half of the brothers had already died in the battle." At this point, King Zhou sighed, "Everyone of the remaining few people was injured, but in the end, they finally ran away When we arrived in Xiangyang, we found the guard Shi Lan." In the twilight, he vaguely saw the relieved expressions of everyone. Zhu Gongzhen said again, "Unfortunately, Shi Lan was also in a dilemma. He said, 'I only have 500 cavalry, even if I give them all to you. There are so many thieves, but they can’t be defeated!'"
The audience erupted in sympathetic lamentations.
"Five hundred versus hundreds of thousands, I can't blame Shi Lan for being in trouble. But," at this point, Zhu Gongzhen paused intentionally and raised his voice, "I saw the young general taking off his helmet and asking loudly: 'I am a woman who can break out of the formation, so what do you, five hundred men, have to fear!'"
With a "boom", the soldiers who were mesmerized by the sound exploded.
"Ah? It's actually a girl!"
"Hey! This girl is so charming!"
Zhu Gongzhen turned around and climbed onto the pile of bricks next to him that he had long expected, and said loudly and condescendingly: "Yes, the young general who led the crowd to break out is a girl. She is Xun Guanniang, the daughter of the guard Xun Song! Now you know why Xun Song hesitated Is that enough? Shi Lan was ashamed when he heard this, and immediately contacted Zhou Fang, the prefect of Xunyang. There were only three thousand people there, but he was also impressed by Xun Guanniang's fearlessness, so he sent them all. On the way back to Wancheng, Xun Guanniang took the lead, even Killing two enemy generals who were blocking the way, the third enemy was so frightened that he turned around and ran away. He was knocked alive by Xun Guanniang's horse and flew several feet away! Seeing Xun Guanniang's prowess, the 3,500 soldiers were greatly boosted in morale and attacked bravely. I am invincible! The man in front fell, and the brothers behind immediately made up for it. The thieves besieging the city saw that these people and horses were invincible, and no one dared to fight to stop them. They actually dragged the Juma to block the road, and the Juma was full of horses. Iron thorns, trying to block them with fortifications. Unexpectedly, none of the brothers in the lead hesitated, and directly jumped on them, letting the brothers behind them step on their bodies and turn over to kill the enemy! Afterwards, the corpses were restrained, and the injuries of all the warriors were It's all about the head, face and chest! Although there seemed to be a lot of thieves, they were all rats who relied on numbers to win and emboldened each other. Where have you ever seen such desperate tiger and wolf warriors, all running away with their heads in arms! In this way, they killed the thieves who besieged the city. The army was defeated by the sea of blood in the corpse mountain! Xun Song on the Wancheng wall saw that the reinforcements had arrived, and immediately cooperated to attack. The two soldiers merged into one place. More than 4,000 tiger and wolf soldiers chased and killed hundreds of thousands of thieves for 20 miles. Along the way, the thieves laid countless corpses. Nanyang The White River turned into a river of red blood, and the piles of corpses of thieves blocked the White River until it was 'blocked by white water'!"
There was silence on the west wall. The soldiers all opened their mouths but could not speak. Everyone was lost in thought.
"Guess how old Xun Guanniang was that year?" Zhu Gongzhen lowered his voice and asked, and before anyone could answer, he raised his voice again and answered: "Fourteen years old!"
"Wow"!
The crowd went wild!
"Li Jinzhu! How old are you?" Zhou Gongzhu asked loudly, staring at the young soldier who had straightened his back before him.
"Your Majesty! Jin Zhu is eighteen years old, and he is old enough to kill thieves!" Li Jinzhu knelt down on one knee holding the handle of the knife, with his upper body straight, raising his head and looking directly into the eyes of King Zhou, almost shouting.
"Okay!" King Zhou Zhu Gongzhen shouted, "I believe in you! And you, all of you!" King Zhou waved his hand in a semicircle and pointed at everyone. Everyone felt that Prince Qiantai's finger was pointing at them. "I believe in you! Come here and pass on King Gu's decree: behead an enemy, and I will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver! Guard the city and shoot an enemy, and I will be rewarded with thirty taels of silver! Injure an enemy, and I will be rewarded with ten taels of silver! Kaigu's The king's treasury, the king's rations and the official rations are combined into one treasury. Don't waste rice and wheat. When fighting, all brothers must be full! Fly the king's flag on this city tower, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers to defend against the enemy!"
For a moment, the crowd was silent, and you could hear the drop of a pin.
"Bang", "bang", "bang".
a voice sounded.
Everyone followed the sound and looked at the armor. It was a small flag officer of Xuanwu Guard. His face turned purple, his chest heaved violently, and he was tapping his round shield with his saber.
"Bang", "bang", "bang"... the sound was loud!
All the soldiers beat their shields with their weapons, while the strong men without weapons raised their fists and beat their chests, roaring to demonstrate to the seemingly invincible enemies outside the city!
The roars of "Kill the thieves", "Kill the thieves", "Kill the thieves" resounded through the city of Kaifeng, and the rhythmic sound waves rushed toward the enemy camps outside the city like furious waves.
The setting sun is like blood.
On the upper floor of Kaifeng's West City, a huge flag with the word "Zhou" written in it, measuring five feet square, rustled in the wind.
Niu Youtian looked at the flag blankly, his eyes like iron attracted by a magnet. After a long while, he moved his eyes towards the city with difficulty.
There were corpses all over the city.
Of course Niu Youtian had seen many corpses, but he had never seen so many corpses of "his own people" in one day.
Niu Youtian has commanded many sieges, but he has never seen the defenders fighting like this today.
Early in the morning, Niu Youtian led his bodyguards on horseback and ran half a circle around the city. Through his observation, there are currently only three to four thousand defenders on the Kaifeng wall, which is consistent with his previous judgment. There are also thousands of young men. But these people have nothing to worry about. At best, they can rely on the city wall to gain courage, hide behind the wall stacks and throw a few stones down. It was nothing more than smashing to death some captured civilians - there weren't enough civilians, not to mention they were used to fill trenches.
The Western Wall has the largest number of defenders, only about a thousand and a half, so Niu Youtian decided to set the main attack direction here: as long as this side is defeated, the defenders in other places will flee, and Nuo Da's Kaifeng Mansion will be broken! Along the way, Baofeng, Yuzhou, Xuzhou... are all such run-down cities, and the roads are familiar to everyone. Therefore, after returning, we asked several war camps to drive the people captured yesterday towards the Western Wall. Of course, the people at the front were the people from Xinghua Camp. The first group of people who drove to the city only brought some simple ladders with them as a token - their purpose was to consume the defenders' bows, arrows, masonry gear, physical strength and morale. Although the raw materials for making ladders were everywhere, compared with human lives , no matter how simple a ladder is, it is much more valuable.
There were tens of thousands of civilians who rushed forward in the first wave. According to past experience, when the defenders suddenly see so many "thieves" rushing up, they will definitely be frightened to death. They will definitely fire arrows, fire cannons and throw rocks from the top of the city as if they are splashing water - the defenders only have so many people and cannot rotate them. Rest, it won't be long before their mental and physical strength reaches their limit. At that time, fresh troops from the auxiliary barracks will be sent out, and a few combat barracks will be used to help, and someone will be able to climb the wall!
As usual, the soldiers supervising the battle chopped down a few slow-running chickens to show the monkeys, and the other civilians, who were frightened and crazy, rushed under the wall. Unexpectedly, the soldiers were a little overconfident and lazily stayed away from the formation, shouting and watching the fun. Some arrows and stones were actually fired at the city at first, but what they never expected was that they stopped soon after! Then a guy in a bright red official robe stuck his head out and shouted something below, and all the prisoners on death row knelt down!
While everyone was stunned, the city gate opened!
A group of soldiers with bright armor came straight out, passed the pigs and dogs, and in an instant formed a long formation, covering the tens of thousands of death row prisoners! Armored cavalry galloped out and shouted commands, and the cannon fodder who were supposed to die under the city actually filed into the city with great gratitude!
Before everyone could react, the covering officers and soldiers also entered the city! Even Niu Youtian couldn't imagine that the dog officials could play such a trick. Well, mother, because she was angry at Xinghua Camp for blocking her raid, she confiscated the newly captured young men and sent them all over, sending thousands of troops to the defenders in vain!
The frustrated Niu Youtian had no choice but to mix his auxiliary soldiers and combat soldiers into the second group of civilians and engage in a war of attrition on the first morning of the attack.
The morale of the defenders was certainly boosted. By the afternoon, the number of heads on the wall had more than doubled! I think the dog officers have completed the identification and put the guys who were supposed to die under the wall on the wall to participate in the defense!
Until Shenshi was approaching, the rain of masonry and arrows showed no sign of abating, and under the city, more than two thousand corpses were already lying down - most of them were Niu Youtian's "own people"!
Niu Youtian waved his hand feebly, and the golden sound of withdrawing troops back to the camp sounded. The exhausted war auxiliaries ran back one after another with their heads down. When they were far away, hundreds of people suddenly appeared among the "corpses" lying on the ground, and they all knelt down and kowtowed towards the Western Wall! "These pigs and dogs are cheating to death!" The guards beside Niu Youtian cursed fiercely. Then, the city gate opened for the second time, and those pigs and dogs crawled into the city!
Niu Youtian was in a dreamlike trance, staring blankly at the royal flag fluttering in the wind on the Ximen Tower.
"Kill the thief!", "Kill the thief!", "Kill the thief!"
The overwhelming cheers brought Niu Youtian back to reality. The cheers were the same as last night, oh no, much louder than last night.
