By this time, it was already bright.
Tan Xing came out with a thousand soldiers and horses to replace Xiong Zezhong's 500 soldiers and horses.
Xiong Zezhong sat down on the ground, panting and moaning feebly: "Shenzhi, if you don't come, my life will be handed over here."
"I know you're working hard, do you want me to give you a candied haws on a stick?" Tan Xing said as he took out the candied haws on a stick from his arms.
The two of them are on the same level, and talking about hard work is just a way of comforting them.
It happened that he still had a candied haws in his hand, so he gave it to Xiong Zezhong.
Xiong Zezhong was not polite. He took the candied haws and ate it.
Tan Xing watched Xiong Zezhong eating the candied haws with great interest, and said happily: "You guys are pretty good, you held out for three hours and caused three or four hundred rebel casualties, but none of you died. Hey, hey, why don't you? Have you spoken?"
After Xiong Zezhong ate half of the candied haws in his mouth, he fell to the ground and began to purr.
His face was dark, obviously full of smoke, and he had no time to clean it.
Tan Xing shook his head, and together with his soldiers, he carried Xiong Zezhong to the bed and covered him with a quilt.
As for the half of candied haws, I wrapped it in a piece of paper and put it in his hand on top of the quilt.
"General, look at General Xiong. He is holding a candied haws of apples and sleeping at the same time. Does he look like a child?" The soldier looked at Xiong Zezhong's sleeping figure and couldn't help laughing.
Bang bang, Tan Xing slapped the soldier on the head.
The soldier covered his head and looked at Tan Xing in confusion: "General, why did you hit your subordinate?"
"No matter how big or small, who should I hit if I shouldn't hit you?" Tan Xing said as he hit the adze again, "General Xiong fought bloody battles for half the night, and you actually ruined him like this."
The soldier was only fifteen or sixteen years old and looked childish.
He covered his head and said with some reluctance: "General, to be honest, General Xiong and his subordinate's little brother sleep in a somewhat similar way."
Listen, the soldier was hit on the forehead by Tan Xing again.
At this time, Tan Ming suddenly hurried in and reported: "Tell the general, the roof of the gate tower is almost destroyed."
"What's going on?" Tan Xing looked at the roof and saw that it was riddled with holes, and wisps of sunlight shone in through one hole after another.
Through the sunlight, you can see that some purlins have turned pitch black, obviously because of the rocket.
Tan Ming bowed his hands and said, "Tell the general, the rebels concentrated rockets and flints last night to burn down the gate tower. Although they were intercepted and did not burn the gate tower, the purlins were almost destroyed. What should I do?"
"What should we do?" Tan Xing thought for a while, looked at the roof a few more times, and said decisively: "Of course we have to renovate it, otherwise the roof cannot withstand the soldiers."
"Tell the general, I'm going to find the craftsman now." Tan Ming bowed his hands and was about to leave.
At this time, Tan An also came in. He glanced at Tan Ming and said anxiously: "General, the craftsmen are already here."
"When you are really sleepy, someone will give you a pillow." Tan Xing couldn't help but be overjoyed, "Then let them go to the roof immediately to replace the purlins."
"Tell the general that things are a bit difficult to handle?" Tan An had a look of embarrassment on his face.
Tan Xing frowned: "What's so difficult to do?"
"Tell the general, the rebels still have rockets, and they must still stay there. It is difficult to replace them." Tan An bowed his hands, grinned, and showed a smile that was uglier than crying.
Tan Xing thought for a while and finally said: "Let's divide them into batches and defend while replacing them."
"Tell the general, this is the only way at the moment." Tan An thought for a while, turned around and left to convey the order.
Tan Xing suddenly remembered something: "Wait, wait, the craftsmen are the treasures of Zhaojiazhuang, so you must protect them."
"No." Tan An turned around and bowed to Tan Xing.
On the roof of the gate tower, the sunlight makes people warmer, but it also completely exposes the burn marks on the roof.
The leader of the craftsmen, Zhao Chang, led a group of craftsmen to the roof of the gate tower and came here against many purlins. He took the lead in climbing the ladder, and when he reached the roof, he couldn't help but be shocked: "Your roof has been burned to this state, and the purlins have almost turned into black charcoal. How can you still hold on?"
"Shopkeeper Zhao, this is going to trouble you." Tan An said anxiously, "Last night the rebels' rockets and flints were shot towards here desperately, so I have to trouble you to replace them."
"It should be replaced, but aren't you afraid of falling?" Zhao Chang looked at the dark purlins, looked at them in disbelief, and asked even more worriedly.
In fact, he still had something to say that was hard to say. If this purlin was burnt to coke, could it still be able to withstand people?
Although he didn't say it, Tan An also knew what Zhao Chang meant.
After all, there are already enough roofers, and I don’t know if they can afford the craftsmen now.
Tan An actually didn't know what he was doing, but he couldn't let anything slip at this critical moment.
Tan An shook his head, stepped on the purlins and said, "These purlins have turned into charcoal on the surface, but they are actually good inside, otherwise people would have fallen down long ago."
"Really? I heard that these use strong fire oil and cannot be extinguished by water." Zhao Chang tried to get on the roof, pressed his hand a few more times, and then nodded, "How did you put out the fire?"
"Of course Chaba used river sand to extinguish the fire very quickly, otherwise the fire would have rotted inside." Tan An nodded to these Chaba and praised them.
Chaba who was putting out the fire or not putting out the fire felt sweeter than honey when he heard Tan An's praise.
These bad guys are all young, no more than twenty.
How Solangeji was promoted and how he joined the security group was not due to his bravery in putting out fires.
Listening to Tan An's performance, they might also hope to be promoted, or even become one of the heavenly soldiers and generals sent by Manjushri Bodhisattva.
"Shopkeeper Zhao," Tan Ming watched the two people talking non-stop, feeling a little anxious. He used his knife to chop off the flying rockets: "The rebel rockets are here again, hurry up and replace the purlins."
On the hill outside the south gate, there is the rebel base camp in front.
"What, the Han people are replacing the gate tower purlins?" After hearing the report from the soldiers, Zhandui Danzeng hurriedly ran out of the camp to see what was going on.
"Congratulations, congratulations." Jie Ding said with a smile on his face, "General, your fire attack seems to have done a lot of damage to the gate tower. This is something that the Dharma King has not yet accomplished."
They are the soldiers and horses of the political governor Lajia, and they are always compared with the soldiers and horses of the King of France.
The King of France got a big hammer dropped from a winch by the Han people and used it as a mascot, which also deceived these nobles for a long time.
No one else, because Zhaojiazhuang is so unnatural that even an ordinary object is deified into a spiritual object by them.
Zhan Dui Shan Zeng almost burned down the gate tower now, which is also a record.
Thinking of this, Zhan Dudanzeng waved his hand: "All the rockets and flints, continue to shoot towards the gate tower for me."
Suddenly, the morale of the rebel soldiers who had rested for a while was greatly boosted.
In the sky above the south gate, thousands of rockets and dozens of catapults seemed to be flying towards him like a series of meteors.
Watching the rockets keep flying, Tan An became anxious.
Now it's not like yesterday, all we have to do is defend.
There are many things to do today, not only to protect the craftsmen, but also to protect the newly exposed purlins from burning.
In the past, although the roof also had purlins, they were protected by tiles.
Now we have to replace the purlins, and it is difficult to put the tiles on top of the purlins for a while.
"It seems that the rebels want to burn down the gate tower deliberately." Tan An was shocked, looked at Tan Ming and asked, "Da Lang, what should I do?"
"Hurry up and bring the Eight Immortals Table with wet blankets and the spear." Tan Ming was surprised, his eyes rolled around, and he immediately thought of a way.
After saying that, he cut off another rocket that was leaking air.
Tan An nodded and shouted to the security officers below: "Bring some wet quilts and spears."
The soldiers came up one after another against the Eight Immortals table and spears, looking at the two people.
"One half is holding the Eight Immortals Table to protect the craftsmen, and the other half is holding the Eight Immortals Table to shoot down the rockets." Tan Ming took the spear and motioned for Tan An to take the Eight Immortals Table. "The two of you are holding the Eight Immortals Table. Keep your spirits up and pay attention to the rockets and flints."
"The key point is to protect the craftsmen." Tan An added, "The rockets are also handled by Chaba."
This roof is no better than the flat ground, and four people can stand on the Eight Immortals Table.
The roof was sloping and there was no room for four people, so two people had to hold on.
Even if there are two people, it is more dangerous than on the ground, because the Eight Immortals Table cannot move at all.
Advantageously, due to the sloped shape of the roof, the person holding the Eight Immortals Table can see the rockets and flints, making it easier to intercept them.
Deputy foreman Zhao Chun took a look at the roof, which was full of holes, and asked urgently: "Dalang, how do we start? The rebel rockets are fierce."
"Start with the spine first, where rockets are more difficult to shoot." Zhao Chang looked at the roof, thought about it and came up with a plan, "Easy first, then difficult."
After saying that, he took the lead to the spine, picked out the tiles just now, and put them aside.
With him taking the lead, craftsmen immediately picked out the tiles and exposed the burnt purlins.
Zhao Chun led another group of craftsmen to remove the mortise and tenon joints of the purlins.
The gate tower is a military building and is very solidly built.
This will inevitably cause problems, because the mortise and tenon joints are very solidly made.
Even in ordinary times, taking out the mortise and tenon joints takes a lot of time, so time is not an issue.
But it was wartime, and they needed to remove the mortise and tenon joints as quickly as possible.
Puff puff puff, rockets kept flying towards the gate tower.
Tan Ming roared and waved the spear in his hand desperately, and he kept shooting down rockets.
Since there was no sword, the downed rocket fell directly onto the roof.
Some fell along the roof, and some began to burn.
Chaba immediately took action, crawled over carefully, and hurriedly doused the rocket with river sand.
It is not enough to extinguish the rocket, it must be taken away.
If it is normal, the rocket will have little impact on the roof.
But today is different. The rocket is not light either. For every extra weight, the roof will bear the same weight.
I am not afraid of anything else. I am afraid that the weight of these arrows plus the weight of people will exceed the support of the purlins.
There are a lot of people on the roof now, including not only police officers and soldiers from the security corps, but also craftsmen.
It can be said that the gate tower has not endured so much weight since its construction.
No one knows exactly how much weight the roof can bear and when it will collapse.
Although everyone had no idea, they had to grit their teeth and persevere.
The gate tower was not a focus of the two sides before, but now it has become a focus of competition between the security group and the rebels.
The gate tower not only houses the security team commanders, but is also a resting place for the security team officers and police officers.
Of course, the gate tower is also the key to protecting the suspension bridge.
Although the rebels attacked fiercely, they had not really occupied any part of Qingtang City.
If the rebels succeed in burning down the gate tower, their morale will be greatly improved. On the contrary, it will be a huge blow to the morale of the security group.
It is precisely because the gate tower is so important that no matter how much the security team pays, they must keep the gate tower.
Now the security team no longer sets up defenses everywhere, but the focus is on protecting the craftsmen from harm.
As for the rocket that fell on the roof, it will naturally be dealt with. These purlins need to be replaced anyway.
Tan Ming and Tan An breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the rocket was either intercepted or dealt with by Chaba.
A soldier suddenly widened his eyes and exclaimed loudly: "Captain, it's not good."
"What's all the fuss about?" Tan Ming asked while waving his spear to intercept and staring at the rocket in front of him.
The soldier shouted: "A flint is coming."
"Just shoot it down." Tan Ming said calmly as he swept down another rocket.
The soldier almost cried: "Captain, my subordinates want to shoot him down, but they can't move."
Indeed, the roof is no better than the flat ground and cannot be moved at all.
Tan Ming had no choice but to look towards the place where the soldiers were speaking, and saw one flying towards him, and his position happened to be between the two of them.
