The attack and defense of Empress City has entered its third day. The war has been extremely fierce. The east wall of Empress City is covered with traces of war. Corpses are piled under the city, and the wilderness is dyed red with blood. In addition to a thick layer of corpses, there are many smashed The burned ladders and the wreckage of the crashed cars proved the brutality of this offensive and defensive battle.
In this offensive and defensive battle that lasted for two days, nearly 10,000 Goguryeo soldiers were killed, and more than 1,000 of the 4,000 Sui defenders were killed and wounded. The young Goguryeo soldiers who were forcibly recruited to defend the city also suffered more than 3,000 casualties. However, the Sui army, which originated from the miscellaneous soldiers of the Youzhou Navy, had adapted to the enemy's rhythm, and their morale became higher and higher as they fought.
As time entered the early morning of the third day, the red battle flag of the Sui army fluttered in the sky above the east city gate. A ray of morning sun shone through the thick morning fog on the top of the city, casting a magnificent red color. The Sui soldiers on the city fell asleep leaning against the city wall. Their eyebrows and beards were covered with a layer of white moisture, and the morale condensed from their faces, helmets, and armors. Slowly slide down. But the tranquility did not last long. When the thick fog dispersed, the drums of the Goguryeo camp started beating again, and the sound of "Dongdongdong" war drums was earth-shattering and endless.
The Sui soldiers who were sleeping soundly on the city woke up from their sleep and quickly entered the fighting position. General Mai Mengcai, who was sleeping on the gatehouse, also stood up. He wiped his eyes and strode to In front of the battlements, the enemy troops stared forward and looked away.
I saw the Goguryeo army in the distance gathering from the enemy groups from all directions to the front, gathering into dark square formations, and gradually forming an overwhelming front line.
"Pass my order!" Mai Mengcai turned around and ordered: "Let all soldiers and civilians join the battle!"
After giving the order, he stared at the overwhelming enemy troops again. He felt that the enemy troops had invested far more troops this time than in the previous two days of fighting. He knew that the enemy troops were planning to carry out a desperate battle today, and the outcome would be decided today. .
"Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, oh, oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-- for of of the Sui Army soldiers on the city wall. The swords flashed and the bows lost their density; the civilians who were temporarily armed also heard the signal and took action, bringing the defense materials to the city.
The overwhelming number of Goguryeo soldiers outside the city soon formed up. With the successive defeats in the siege, Wu Bin was extremely anxious. Not only did he send all the soldiers to the battlefield, but also a group of soldiers transferred from Shangjian City last night. One hundred ladder trucks and thirty nest trucks were also thrown into the battle by him.
In this battle, Wu Bin personally led 5,000 elite cavalrymen to supervise the battle team. He stared at the pulled up suspension bridge under the banner. The suspension bridge was already seriously damaged and crumbling.
"Report to the general, everything is ready." A general came forward and reported: "The city assault vehicle has also been built overnight."
Wu Bin turned around and looked behind him. A huge assault chariot had appeared not far behind him. He looked at a group of senior generals who had gathered and said seriously: "Everyone, no matter how many soldiers and horses we lose today, we still have to do it." Conquer Niangniang City and annihilate the Sui army in the city, otherwise, it will definitely affect the entire war situation, and King Gao Yuan will be unable to retreat."
"The general will obey your order!" All the generals responded with a roar.
Wu Bin waved his sword and shouted: "Attack!"
"Dong, Dongdong, Dongdongdong..." The sound of Goguryeo drums began to get louder. More than 40,000 soldiers surrounded the ladder carts and nest carts and rushed forward. The army formations composed of square formations were like a huge carpet. , covering all the wilderness between the mountains and the sea.
For the Liaodong Peninsula, Niangniang City was as valuable as Anshi City. Goguryeo was equipped with a hundred small catapults and a hundred crossbows for city defense; in previous battles, more than 60 catapults were lost. Cars and more than forty crossbows. Mai Mengcai knew that Wu Bin was determined to capture the city today and they would continue to defend it, so he did not dare to be careless and threw the remaining catapults and crossbows into the battle.
"Launch!" When the Goguryeo army launched an attack, the catapult formation, under Wei Kuangbo's order, swung its long arm and smashed dozens of stones into the enemy group as dense as a swarm of ants. Each huge stone hit The enemy group will burst out with blood, and the sound of wailing will be heard throughout the wilderness, but the gap will be filled in an instant by the enemy group behind and behind.
With a "boom" sound, a nest car was targeted
The well-aimed stone hit, sawdust scattered, the support collapsed, and dozens of archers screamed and fell from the high-hanging archery tower.
The Nest Car is made of huge wood and has a very simple structure. The Nest Car is hollow, with a staircase leading to the top. The wooden platform at the top is like a bird's nest, so it is called the Nest Car. At the same time, because the watchtower above is called a Building Car, the Nest Car can be used as a building car. The lookout car can also place archers in the building; and there are two rows of wooden wheels underneath, which are pushed hard by soldiers on the left, right and rear.
If this kind of siege equipment is not destroyed, when it approaches the city, it can not only suppress the defenders with arrows from a high position, but also send soldiers to the top of the city. It is more powerful than a ladder truck because it is relatively bulky. , are usually targeted first by the defenders with catapults.
"Boom", two more nest cars were hit at the bottom. The front axles were broken and the wheels came out. The nest cars lost their center of gravity and immediately tilted forward. Amidst the screams of the soldiers below and above, the nest cars fell with a crash. It killed and injured a large area.
Although the catapults were very intimidating, Goguryeo's offensive was like a tide amidst the rapid sound of war drums. The boulders thrown by the Sui army in turn fell into the enemy group, like blood-red waves splashing in the ocean, and instantly they were again Being overwhelmed by the surging crowd, they continued to attack the front.
Wu Bin had already boarded a nest cart at this time, and ordered the soldiers to push it forward to watch the battle. Seeing that the nest cart and the ladder cart were seriously destroyed, if he continued to move forward slowly, they would be destroyed before they even got close to the city, so he ordered: : "Ask the siege troops to continue to advance and speed up. As long as they are within the attack range of the catapult, the stones will not be able to shoot."
After two days of hard work, Wu Bin had already lost his patience. Since the empress in front of him was located in the hinterland of Goguryeo, its strength and height were far inferior to Gaimu City and Anshi City at the western entrance of the peninsula. It is said to be easy to conquer, but the Sui army's soldiers defended the city so well. The enemy generals defended the city very tightly. No matter how dangerous it was, they could calmly and decisively replenish their troops in time. As a result, the Goguryeo army repeatedly attacked the city, but failed. They were killed again and again; especially since Goguryeo had accumulated so many weapons and equipment before the war, the Sui army still had no worries about lack of arrows or stones.
"Hugh, sleep, sleep!" When the nest cart and the ladder cart entered the blind spot of the catapult, the crossbows on the city also began to show off their power. The direction they aimed at was also where the nest cart and the ladder cart were. As long as the pusher was pushed If the soldiers in the advancing vehicle are shot to death, the progress of the nest vehicle and ladder vehicle will be delayed. It would be great if they can be killed.
The arrows were as dense as spears and were like locusts. They rushed towards the enemy with a sharp whistling sound. The arrows penetrated the shields with great power and shot the soldiers to the ground fiercely. The sounds of screams came one after another.
"Puff, puff, puff!" The missing arrows made the dense siege formation unable to avoid them, and the arrows were so powerful that their arrival caused the siege troops to scream and fall to the ground one after another.
However, there were too few catapults and crossbows in the city, and reloading was very time-consuming and the launch efficiency was not high. In addition, there were too many Goguryeo soldiers. As time went by, there were finally more than 20 ladder trucks. Built on the city wall, a Goguryeo army commander on the platform shouted with a ruthless face: "Follow me into the city."
"Kill, kill, kill!" The soldiers of the Goguryeo army immediately rushed up along the wooden bridge extending from the ladder truck to the top of the city.
However, the soldiers of the Sui army performed their duties. Wei Kuangbo had already mobilized crossbowmen to the ladder truck when the ladder truck approached. When Goguryeo came out of the truck, the soldiers calmly fired the crossbow machine, and the arrow missed and shot quickly. Go out and hunt down the soldiers on the wooden bridge.
The soldiers in front held sticks to pry up the wooden bridge, and others held many iron forks to fork the edge. Everyone worked together and pushed forward hard. The ladder trucks leaned back one after another, and the soldiers below screamed. Amidst the sound, he slowly fell down.
The Goguryeo civilians who were forcibly conquered, under the threat of the war supervisors, braved the rain of arrows and threw buckets and altars of kerosene into the city. After they were broken, the thick kerosene inside immediately flowed slowly on the ground. , the pungent smell of oil fills the sky. Immediately afterwards, torches were thrown down from the city one by one, instantly igniting the kerosene on the ground and upwards of the siege soldiers.
The Goguryeo soldiers outside the city suddenly fell into chaos. Everyone was pushing and fighting, scrambling to retreat and flee, but there were too many soldiers behind them, making their escape extremely difficult.
The fire was getting bigger and bigger, spreading rapidly, and the fire was constantly being thrown from the city.
Buckets and altars of fire oil also increased the intensity of the fire. The five or six miles long city wall soon turned into a sea of flames. The soldiers under the city turned into burning men. They fell down and struggled in the fire, miserable. Screams resounded throughout the world, and the outside of the city turned into a hell on earth.
The blazing fire and wall of fire broke the first wave of the sharpest offensive of the Goguryeo army.
"General, the enemy launched a fire attack, and the city turned into a sea of flames. Our army's offensive was thwarted and we couldn't attack at all. Our morale is no longer as good as before." A general rode his horse to the nest chariot and looked up at the warriors above. Bin reported the battle situation on the front line, and then asked loudly: "Excuse me, General, should we continue to attack or rest?"
Wu Bin looked at the troops retreating like a tide, punched the railing, and said coldly: "Kerosera is the enemy's last weapon to defend the city. Entering the battlefield this time, it can be seen that the enemy has exhausted its skills. Pass my military order to let the siege army retreat and rest, and the rear army will carry sandbags to put out the fire. When the sand fire is extinguished, the siege army will charge again."
It is extremely frustrating to say that Wu Bin was ordered to prepare the supplies in the city. After Yang Ji defeated the Xifeng Camp and entered Shansong City, Gao Yuan and Yuan Ziyou ordered the southern army to prepare for various key city fortresses. . As the eastern entrance of the Liaodong Peninsula, Jili City and Niangniang City have a strategic position no less than that of Gaimou City and Anshi City. After receiving orders from Gao Yuan and Yuan Ziyou, Wu Bin immediately asked Daxing City soldiers to attack them one after another. The defensive materials were moved over, but now they became deadly to the Goguryeo army. However, since he had prepared the defense supplies himself, Wu Bin knew very well what was inside. When he saw that the enemy had finally put kerosene into the battlefield, he knew that the enemy was already at the end of the battle, so he was not surprised but overjoyed. .
"Yes!" As the order was given, the Goguryeo army's siege troops slowly retreated, and the rear troops immediately stepped forward with sandbags under the cover of archers to use the sand to extinguish the fire.
When Mai Mengcai saw the enemy troops retreating, his tense heartstrings relaxed, but his brows were furrowed. This kerosene was their last weapon. They originally planned to save it until the afternoon, but the enemy troops today His offensive was too fierce and the defenders were extremely tired, so he could only throw fire oil into the battlefield. The next battle will definitely be a very brutal hand-to-hand combat.
At this time, the battlefield temporarily became relaxed and calm due to the fire. The Sui soldiers calmed down a little and immediately used their bows and arrows to throw the arrows away from the wall of fire. Locust-like arrows streaked across the sky. After a brief flight, they quickly fell. Many sword and shield soldiers and heavy baggage soldiers turned into corpses.
The soldiers of the Goguryeo army under the city did not sit still and wait for death, nor did they give the Sui army a chance to breathe. They fired back with arrows one after another. The remaining phalanxes of chariots and ladder chariots also adjusted their directions to avoid being hit by catapults and crossbows aimed in the right direction.
In response to the changes in the enemy's army, Mai Mengcai and Wei Kuangbo also ordered the soldiers to adjust their catapults and crossbows.
When the fire subsided, the Goguryeo army increased its offensive again.
This time, the Goguryeo army even used escalator-like ladders. This type of ladder was far less powerful than a ladder truck and was easily pushed over by the defenders, but it was light and flexible. The two groups of soldiers held a shield in one hand to block the arrows and a ladder post in the other, and worked together to rush forward quickly.
After less than three moments of fighting, dozens of ladders were erected on the city. Iron claws were nailed on the ladder posts. When the ladder hit the battlements, they firmly grasped the battlements, making it impossible for the defenders to push them down. However, Although the Sui soldiers in the city could not push it down, they could violently destroy it.
The soldiers wielded hammers and smashed the iron claws and ladder pillars to the side. When one ladder pillar was empty, the ladder tipped to one side, and the soldiers on it fell one after another. However, the terrain on the city was limited. The enemy had many ladders set up, and many of them were successfully erected and secured.
However, although the soldiers of the Sui army came from the Youzhou Navy and their troops were composed of water thieves and fishermen, they transformed into real warriors after battle after battle. Seeing the enemy troops climbing up one after another, they roared and filial piety. Step forward and use your spear to kill the enemy who climbs up. Whenever a Goguryeo soldier showed up, three soldiers would immediately stab him to death in turn. The body rolling down would knock the soldiers on the ladder to the ground.
A Goguryeo general waited until the ladder stopped, then he held a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. He was not afraid of the rolling stones and arrows above, and bravely climbed up the ladder to the top of the city. At the same time, he shouted loudly: "Follow me and kill."
Go to the city. "
He used his shield frame to sweep away the spears that were coming at him. The man had already climbed up and slashed left and right with his sword, killing several Sui soldiers like a ferocious tiger.
"Stop being so arrogant!" Wei Kuangbo also became a qualified warrior in the battle. Seeing that there was a crisis here, he immediately rushed over with several Wei family soldiers and slashed hard on the shield with his sword, " With a "bang" sound, the huge force caused the opponent to take a few steps back.
When the enemy general staggered back, the two Wei family soldiers pierced the bodies on both sides of the shield with the spears in their hands like poisonous snakes. They worked together to push the opponent to the battlement, and then pushed him off the tower with another force.
As the corpse rolled down, the defenders rushed forward and knocked down the ladder.
Wu Bin saw the chaos on top of the city and ordered with great joy: "Immediately pass on my military order. As long as the city is conquered, everything in the city will belong to the soldiers. The first warrior to climb the city will be rewarded with a hundred taels of gold and a promotion." Commander of a thousand; if you are a captain of a thousand, you will be promoted to three levels in a row."
The easiest way to boost morale is gold, silver, wealth, power, and beauty. As this order was issued from level to level, the offensive of the Goguryeo soldiers became more violent, and the siege troops in front fought to the death.
The pressure on the Sui army defending the city suddenly increased, and they were attacked several times by Goguryeo soldiers. The casualties of the Sui soldiers increased sharply.
The city's defense is in danger, and its fall is only a matter of time.
The attack and defense of the city that lasted for three days finally reached a very critical moment, and the situation became increasingly unfavorable to the Sui army. However, the general Mai Mengcai was indifferent. He calmly commanded the soldiers to fight, and there was nothing If there is a danger, the prepared soldiers will be sent to make up for it. But judging from the way he looked northeast from time to time, his heart was also in confusion.
He sighed, thinking that if the reinforcements did not come, he would have no choice but to lead his army and die in the city.
