Soon after the bandit envoy returned, the attack began.
The closer we get to Liuli Bazhai Gate, the mountain road becomes smoother and wider, with the widest point near the village gate being five or six meters long. The bandits set up an offensive position on this wide mountain road. It is said that Xiong Ben is rampant in Jiguan Mountain and can suppress various villages with fierce folk customs. He is not a fool. He has some rules for managing bandits and arranging troops. Huang Dagen and Cao Ergou stood on the wall of the stronghold and observed carefully. They saw that the formation of the bandits in the distance was somewhat rigorous. It could be vaguely seen that the bandits were well-trained and not an ordinary ragtag group. At the forefront of the bandit formation, dozens of bandit soldiers carried more than twenty giant shields as high as one person, and formed a tight shield wall fifty meters in front of the village wall. Behind the shield wall were dozens of spearmen, followed by nearly a hundred crossbowmen. Behind them were more than a hundred sword and shield soldiers holding long knives and small shields, and others holding long ladders and long ropes with iron hooks, which were used to climb the wall of the village. The bandit soldiers a little further away were busy installing siege equipment. At the end of the array, dozens of bandits were tightly clustered around a large flag. Standing on the wall, you can vaguely see the word "bear" on the flag.
The bandit envoy's exaggerated description made Xiong Ben furious, and he immediately gritted his teeth and issued an attack order. At this moment, the siege weapons had not been installed. It is said that crossbows, trebuchets and other equipment are precision devices, and it will take at least an hour to install them.
The bandits' messengers shouted and conveyed Xiong Ben's attack order, and the bandits carried out orderly operations while waving their flags. The crossbowmen began to draw the strings and prepare to fire. The shield soldiers carried the giant shield and advanced towards the wall. The sword and shield soldiers followed closely with ropes and long ladders, preparing to climb up after approaching the wall. Just before the bandit crossbowmen started firing the first round of volley at the order, the militiamen on the wall hid behind their shields. Hearing the humming sound of dense rain of arrows in the air mixed with screaming sounds, Huang Dagen and Cao Ergou secretly screamed inwardly. A moment later, dense arrows hit the shield, making bursts of "bang bang" sounds, occasionally accompanied by screams. In the blink of an eye, several militiamen on the wall were shot and lay on the ground wailing.
There were more than a dozen strong crossbows among the bandits this time, and they were very powerful. Some of the crossbow arrows penetrated the wooden shields and then shot several inexperienced militiamen who were clinging to the shields. Huang Dagen has been in the army for many years. From the sound and strength, he can tell that some of the bows used by the bandits are no worse than the official bows used by the army. There should also be a few waist crossbows and step crossbows. Since the two Song Dynasties, due to the loss of horse-producing areas in the north and northwest, and the threat of cavalry from the Liao, Jin and Xixia, the Song army developed a tactic of using foot to control cavalry, and the crossbow was a powerful weapon to restrain cavalry. The waist crossbows and step crossbows used by the infantry of the Song Army are extremely powerful. The arrows of the strongest ones, such as the God Arm Crossbow, can even easily penetrate iron armor. Therefore, among the Song Army's best-equipped Forbidden Army, the horse army's crossbowmen accounted for 80% and the infantry army accounted for 70%. This Xiong Ben was originally a junior high school in the army, so he naturally knew the power of crossbows. Although crossbows are complicated and expensive to make, there is no shortage of good wood, tendons, glue and other materials in the mountains. Over the years, the Wanjiaping bandits have slowly trained a force of nearly a hundred crossbowmen through plunder. Although these crossbowmen are far less sophisticated than the Mongolian army, and even inferior to the elite officers and soldiers, their combat power is above that of ordinary officers and soldiers, and they can defeat various villages in the mountain. This is also the basis of Xiong Ben's strength in Jiguan Mountain. .
The officers and soldiers under Ouyang Xuan's command belong to the Xiang Army of Chongqing Prefecture, and the Xiang Army is also called "service army". In fact, its main function is not to fight, but to engage in labor and chores. The training and equipment of the entire Chongqing Prefecture Xiang Army were insufficient, and because of Pan Tongzhi's exclusion, the grain collection team was equipped with only a dozen military bows. After coming to Liuliba and reorganizing into a hunting team, they only added more than 20 hunting bows from the villagers, but not a single crossbow. Under the heavy rain of arrows from the bandits' strong bows and crossbows, the archers on the wall could only take advantage of the gap and occasionally fire cold shots from between the two shields. However, these sparse arrows not only had poor accuracy but also lacked power. In front of the bandit's giant shield, the suppression effect was very poor. Not only did they not hurt the bandit, but several people were shot by the bandit because they leaned out.
Taking advantage of the suppression of strong bows and crossbows, the bandits quickly advanced under the village wall, and used giant shields to form a semicircular protective wall more than ten meters away from the village wall. In just a few minutes, dozens of sword and shield soldiers swarmed under the wall and climbed up along the long ladders and ropes. There were shouts of killing. When the bandit soldiers climbed up the upper part of the village wall, the bandit crossbowmen stopped firing arrows for fear of accidental injury. Huang Dagen hunched over and walked back and forth on the wall, loudly ordering everyone to take advantage of this moment to push down the long ladder with a fork, use an ax to cut the rope hanging on the wall, and use a spear to stab the bandits who climbed up the wall. . After cleaning the top of the wall, they threw away the bandit soldiers who were smashing the base of the wall with stones.
The shouts of killing inside and outside the village wall made Ouyang Xuan and others start to feel restless. However, although he was a little worried, he was not planning to go to the wall. This was not because he was afraid of death but because he was afraid of affecting Huang Dagen's command. Although in terms of strategic vision and judgment, Huang Dagen is definitely not as good as him because of his thousands of years of historical experience, but when it comes to commanding specific battles, Huang Dagen, who has been in the army for many years, is obviously better than him. Sure enough, under the command of Huang Dagen, although the bandits' offensive was fierce, they only stopped at the top of the wall. On the contrary, under the condescending counterattack of Liuliba soldiers, the bandits who climbed the wall were beaten to the ground. The whole place was filled with curses, roars, and lamentations...
Under the cover of the continuous rain of arrows from the crossbowmen, the bandits attacked several waves within half an hour, but they all failed under the stubborn resistance on the wall. This made Xiong Ben curse the incompetence of Ni Shiyou, the second-in-command of the mountain village who led the attack. . These attacks caused more than 30 casualties to the bandits, but only about 10 people were injured in Liuliba, mainly injured by bows and arrows. The bandits who failed to attack ignored the wounded who were still wailing under the wall and fled behind the giant shield array in front of the wall to catch their breath. From this distance, large stones could not be thrown, and small stones and bows and arrows would be blocked by the giant shield. To the frightened bandit soldiers, this seemed like a safe place.
Continuous attacks were frustrated, so Ni Shiyou was ready to wait for the siege equipment to be installed and disperse the guards on the wall before attacking. However, the already angry big boss Xiong Ben disagreed. He had sent people twice to urge him. Looking at his wailing and tired men, and then at the "bear" flag slowly coming towards him, Ni Shiyou gritted his teeth and loudly issued the order to attack. In this attack, he planned to move the crossbowmen behind the giant shield to close in and suppress the shooting, while the rest of the troops rushed up to attack the wall and capture Liuliba in one fell swoop. This human wave tactic has been tried and tested many times in dealing with disobedient villagers, but the casualties were higher. But compared to the casualties of his brothers, his position and life are obviously more important, Ni Shiyou thought secretly. Although he is the second in command of the bandits, he is not willing to face Xiong Ben's wrath.
The power of the arrows fired by the crossbowmen at close range was indeed greatly increased, especially the sharp arrows fired by the waist crossbows were even more astonishing. This made the archers on the wall of the village suppressed and could no longer organize an effective counterattack. , which allowed the bandits who attacked the village wall to calmly rush to the base of the village wall, and in an instant they gathered in a dark mass. They only had to wait for a long ladder and rope to climb up. In this offensive and defensive battle, both sides knew that the wall near the village gate was the most important. Once occupied, they could open the gate and capture the village. Ni Shiyou invested a dozen of his most elite people in this section, preparing to attack in one fell swoop. The resistance on this section of the wall was also the fiercest. Under the suppression of the bandits' crossbowmen, they continued to throw stones down. When the bandits climbed halfway up the wall along the long ladders and ropes, Ni Shiyou, who was hiding behind the giant shield and commanding, saw a strong black man on the wall. Looking at the gap between the bows and crossbows, he fired densely toward the bottom of the wall. A black melon was thrown into the crowd. This Ni Shiyou saw clearly, this black melon still has a burning tail. Just when he was wondering, a huge thunder sounded from the base of the wall, and the smoke and dust suddenly enveloped the entire village gate...
