Chapter 202: Dedicating the City
After the formation, She Chongming felt a trace of cold air rising deep in his lower abdomen, winding up along his blood veins, reaching his chest, and suddenly turned into a cold hand, tightly grasping the beating heart! For a moment, his whole body felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. Every pore suddenly stood up, and a huge sense of frustration rushed over his face, swallowing him whole to the bone.
After paying such a heavy price, seeing that victory was within easy reach, there was no more force on the city that could threaten the towers. Thousands of men could immediately climb the towers and the city with shouts, exhausted before the sun set behind the mountains in the west. All the Han dogs would lay dead on the wall, and the huge Chengdu Mansion was about to fall into his hands... She Chongming, who was full of ambition, saw dozens of life-threatening ghost-like figures flying in front of the city gate!
Towering towers, each one is as high as half a mountain! These towers took tens of thousands of manpower to build. In the history of Yongning, no, in the entire southwest of the Ming Empire, there has never been a battle that involved dozens of siege towers! After a bloody battle, the remaining eight towers were enough to conquer Chengdu. However, at this moment, seven of them were emitting thick smoke and collapsed one after another before his eyes!
She Chongming saw clearly that the counterattack defenders totaled only a few dozen people, and behind each tower, there were at least hundreds of Miao soldiers of their own! However, King She didn't blame his own soldiers, he really didn't blame him - because he could clearly see that the dozens of defenders were divided into eight groups. In the lead of each group, there were one or two people holding a few fuses in their hands. The explosive can with sizzling sparks jumped into the crowd! There were one or two loud noises, gunpowder smoke filled the air, and flesh and blood flew everywhere. The few people who followed took advantage of the moment when the white horse passed by, and all hugged the big oil cans and got into the tower! Within a moment, fires ignited from the inside, thick smoke rose, and flames flowed out of the gaps in the tower and at the entrance. On almost every tower, there were entangled burning people falling from the sky... The only one who survived That one was just because the attacker who was running at the front really lost his strength, tripped and fell, and the explosive can exploded in the queue of his people...
However, the tower is no longer useful.
There are still two cannons on the top of the city. Taking advantage of this chaos, they should have completed loading. Soon they will launch continuous bombardments on the only remaining tower!
"boom"!
"boom"!
As She Chongming expected, the two cannons on the top of the city roared one after another again.
However, his judgment was still somewhat wrong: the tower nearby was safe and sound, but on the contrary, two large clusters of blood splashed out from the Miao soldiers behind!
ah?
Why? Why is this happening?
She Chongming's face suddenly turned pale - he immediately understood the message conveyed to him by the defenders' artillery fire: Your tower, your people, just come over, our steel swords are waiting for you!
King She had already made a judgment: the garrison of Chengdu Mansion was no more than 3,000 people at best. However, just such a small number of people were able to forcefully carry their own hundreds of thousands of troops and attack for such a long time. What a powerful Han general and what a powerful Han soldier! Especially the counterattack where dozens of people risked their lives just now, Ajia, Ading, Mainan, Cheshao, Kou Ganbao... She Chongming licked his fingers and silently recited the names in his heart. These are all warriors in their old village. There is no doubt that they will be like this in critical moments. However, after counting, there are only eight or nine people at best - these are the dead soldiers that the She family has raised since they were young! As for the Han general on the opposite side, he casually picked out a team to guard the goal and fought for a whole day. He must have killed more than half of them, and then... all those who were still alive launched such a battle that the world changed color and the ghosts and gods were shocked. Crying suicide attack!
Warrior, everyone is a warrior! What kind of army is this? There is such an army in the world! A chill enveloped his whole body from head to toe, and She Chongming couldn't help but tremble: If Han generals and soldiers were like this... what kind of war would we be fighting?
The tower in sight stopped.
Someone ran out from inside.
There was an endless stream of people running out, twenty or thirty people in total. These are the bravest and most elite veterans of Cat's Tower. In order to approach the city wall as quickly as possible, the tower cannot be filled with people. Most of the people have to push from behind, but it cannot be empty inside. Once the springboard is set up on the city wall, the warriors will rush out to rush to the top of the wall to seize space for their companions behind. There is room for breakthrough, so the cats in each tower are the strongest warriors in each village!
But at this moment, these elites who had never fought against the enemy lost all their will to fight. They all ran out of the tower and hid in the crowd behind them, cowering and not daring to move forward!
The Miao soldiers' rear team also stopped. Because there were so many towers in front of them to connect to the wall, these people didn't bring many ladders to climb the wall. At this point, it is impossible for tens of thousands of people to jump over the wall with the only remaining tower - not to mention that the tower has stopped.
However, She Chongming knew very well that what really stopped these people was not the stopped towers, not the corpses everywhere, nor the incoming artillery rockets, but the gloomy murderous aura of the defenders who were willing to die! This murderous aura is like an invisible wall that you can't see or touch, but it's blocked there, and the overwhelming sense of oppression that hits your face is simply breathtaking.
"Retract the troops, retract the troops." She Chongming ordered weakly.
The sound of bamboo bangs sounded, and the soldiers on the front line turned around and ran back as if they had been granted amnesty. Sun Jie on the wall noticed that this was the first time since the war began that no one was dragging the wounded soldiers who fell to the ground.
The thief's courage has gone cold!
"Dad!" Shi Erlei let out another heart-rending cry.
Sun Jie stood further forward than the guards. When Shi Meng led his team to charge desperately, Sun Jie immediately recognized the familiar figure. Immediately afterwards, Er Lei also recognized his father. He was so furious and exhausted that he suddenly fainted in Sheng Degong's arms. At this moment, Youyou woke up, and her crying made her scalp numb.
Sun Jie was not good at words. He turned around and stared at Er Lei for a long time. He opened his mouth and finally said nothing. He put his hand on Er Lei's shoulder and pressed it hard. Sheng Degong gave Sun Jie a knowing look. .
"Commander." It was Laoshun's voice.
Sun Jie turned around and saw the fat painted face of Commander Lao - blood, mud, and sweat were smeared together, and big tears were still pouring out of his red eyes. Lao Shun clasped his fists heavily: "Commander! Lao has surrendered to the commander! The commander leads such strong soldiers! We Chengdu central defenders cannot stare at the brothers who came to help us to die in the wilderness - we will not be able to hold our heads up for the rest of our lives!" The general will ask the commander-in-chief to open the city gate, and the Chengdu central guard will collect the bodies of the brothers. Commander, don't worry, Lao Mou will personally hold the battle. If the extravagant thief comes to snatch the door, even if he dies in front of the door, he will not let a thief come over!"
Sun Jie looked outside the city. She Chongming had retreated far away, so he nodded: "General Lao Lao is here."
"Guodong." Zhu Xieyuan also came down from the tower early. Looking at Sun Jie, he had mixed emotions. It really felt like he was living two lives apart.
"Sir." Sun Jie turned to Zhu Xieyuan. At this moment, all words seem redundant.
Outside the city, Lao Shun and more than 20 servants lined up on horseback to serve as a guard. Ding Baihu, the Chengdu central guard, led people to carefully pick through the charred corpses among the remains of the corpse pile. One piece was carefully stored in the oilcloth bag. Many corpses and remains were entangled together. It was obvious that they were still fighting for their lives at the last moment of their lives. Everyone was moved.
She Chongming, who was at the gate of the camp in the distance, glanced at the battlefield again, and with a thought in his heart, he immediately gave up the thought he had just had: That's all, they are all warriors, let them be properly packed and buried, the warriors deserve this gift from The respect of opponents, well, even the warriors of the Han family are the same. She Chongming then thought that in the past few days of hard fighting, there was no chance for such a small number of people to take a rest. Even the iron man would have fallen. No matter how strong the warrior was, he would never be able to survive tomorrow. There is no way, it is a life-and-death killing field. The whole army will attack tomorrow. The defenders will definitely hold on for a while, but they can climb the wall and break through at noon at most. There is no need to wait until evening, Chengdu Mansion will be under their control... …It’s just a matter of offering sacrifices to them when the time comes.
"Your Majesty. Hu Rugao and several other village leaders from Dishui Village, led by the leader of Luo Village, are almost here. They are now camping twenty miles away and will meet us tomorrow." Deputy General Zhang Tong reported with joy on his face.
"Okay! After fighting for so many days, the Han dogs in Chengdu Prefecture are almost exhausted. Tomorrow you lead the villages that have not participated in the battle yet, and let Luo Qianxiang support you from behind. Remember, immediately surround the city after breaking it. We live in the Prince of Shu's Mansion and we must capture Zhu Zhishu alive no matter what! As long as we hold him in our hands, we will no longer be angry with Han dogs."
"Yes!" Zhang Tong was very proud. When the battle reached this point, everyone could see that Chengdu Mansion would not be able to survive tomorrow no matter what - the king neither gave it to his son She Yin nor his son-in-law Fan Long but awarded it to himself for the great achievement of destroying the city. , Zhang Tong is of course happy.
"Report to your Majesty, someone from the city has come to ask for surrender." It was getting dark, and She Chongming was about to take a rest when the camp guards brought in another person. Although he was wearing commoner clothes, he could tell at a glance that he was from the army.
"Your Majesty. The younger one is Ding Laosan, the conductor of Chengdu Zhongwei Lao. The master of my family asked me to come over to find your Majesty. I would like to present the city tomorrow and ask for your surrender." The visitor knelt on the ground and kowtowed.
"Oh? You guys fought well, why do you want to surrender?" She Chongming stared at Lao San suspiciously.
"Your Majesty, our men are almost exhausted." Lao San's voice was very low at first, then he paused and said, "Sun Jie's fellow is supported by Zhu Da... Well, the supporter named Zhu is from another province. When he came here, he snatched the head of the family's command, forcing the Chengdu Guard brothers to take the lead every day, and today he even forced the head of the family to collect the corpses outside the city for him. The head of the family was really angry, so he asked the younger one to come to the king, and wanted to dedicate the city to him tomorrow. "
"Humph," She Chongming snorted and said, "We have been fighting for a long time. Why did you just think of asking for surrender today? I see you are clearly pretending to surrender! Someone, drag him out and chop him!"
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty," Lao San shouted, but there was not much panic on his face.
She Chongming raised his hand to stop Miao Bing who was about to drag Lao San out of the tent: "What do you have to say?"
Lao San replied seriously: "When the king comes to fight, the Chengdu central defender will definitely have to resist for a while. If we can't fight, we will surrender. If the court doesn't pay us, we are not worthy of selling the life given by our parents at such a low price." A while ago, the man surnamed Sun was watching closely and couldn't get out at all. Today, the head of the family asked the younger one to join the body collection team, and then he crawled over to see the king. The brothers in the Chengdu central defender had not wanted to fight for a long time, and they were all forced by the man surnamed Sun. , the head of the family said, the king will definitely continue to attack the city tomorrow, and most of the city will not be able to be defended. But if the head of the house opens the door directly in advance, wouldn’t it be much more convenient for the king to enter the city? "
She Chongming was very surprised by Lao San's neither humble nor arrogant attitude, and couldn't help but ask: "Are you really Commander Lao's servant? Are you really not afraid that I, the king, will kill you with a single blow?"
Lao San grinned: "Everyone has his own destiny. I grew up in Lao's family. People in Weili eat bran and I eat mixed noodles. People in Weili eat wild vegetable dumplings, so I have meat to eat. My life is given by my parents. Yes, I am the breadwinner of the family. The head of the family has said that if I can accomplish something, he will accept him as his adopted son when he comes back. The king will kill me and destroy the city as well tomorrow, but some people must be cut off in front of the gate. If I go back and report a message, Tomorrow when the king's people come, they will see the door open. I think, the king must know that if the door is not opened tomorrow, the king will still destroy the city, and the younger ones will be found and cut to pieces if they die in the rebel army. So the king should trust the younger ones."
She Chongming was amazed by what he said. After thinking about it, it was indeed the case. He asked some details about the situation of the defenders. Lao San also knew everything. He even said that Shi Li and Qin Liangyu had sent troops to steal his retreat. Having said that, I have to believe that Lao San is telling the truth.
After sending Lao San away, Zhang Tong and She Yin started talking about it. After talking for a long time, She Chongming said decisively: "In any case, there are only a few hundred Sun Jie's Changjie Camp backbone in the city, Lao Shun." The Chengdu central defender is nothing to worry about. There is no way that thousands of people who are half-tired to death can set up an ambush for tens of thousands of us. Nao San is right. Letting him go is just a temporary loan of his life. Tomorrow we will just see if We will find out when we open the city gate!"
