For five or six hours, Zhou Tinggou stood quietly on the north gate tower of Hezhou City, motionless as he watched the people pouring out of the city from the city gate hole at his feet.
As the deputy capital of Jiangnan's bandit-hunting camp, Zhou Tinggou's mood at this time was complicated. Didn't he know how difficult and miserable these people's escape would be after leaving Hezhou City, and how many floating corpses would starve to death?
But he had to do it. All he can do is stand on the city tower and watch them leave Hezhou, while he himself will lead his troops to stay here and strive to protect the last gate of the capital so that his subordinates can go safely after the war. The Jinling family reunited.
Facts have proved that timely retreat is a wise decision.
In the early morning, after all the people evacuated from the north city gate, in the dawn light, the defenders at the top of the city saw the rebels encircling the city wall from the northeast.
As long as it takes half a day, the entire Hezhou City will be surrounded by rebels, and no one will be able to leave by then.
In the early morning of the first day of September, the clarion call of the rebel attack finally sounded through the mountains and fields, and Li Jingsui couldn't wait to issue the order to attack Hezhou.
At this time, more than 400 trebuchets captured from the various state capitals in Jiangnan West Road were all in place and began to bomb the defenders at the top of the city. Suddenly, there was a pouring rain of falling rocks on the walls of the four cities of Hezhou. Smoke, dust and sand were flying. Stones as big as millstones and as small as fists fell unscrupulously towards the city head. A yellow cloud of sand rose from the head of Hezhou City. The dust cloud hung over the city for a long time.
Fortunately, the city walls of Hezhou City were considered strong, with thick and tall battlements, and arrow towers and urn towers built every few dozen steps on the city walls. These became hiding places for the defenders to avoid stone attacks. Although the rain of stones was violent, it did not cause much damage to the defenders at the top of the city. The only damage caused to them was psychological deterrence and intimidation.
You must know that most of the soldiers guarding the city are new recruits who have only been in the army for more than ten days. On weekdays, let alone fighting, their hearts will jump with fright when they see a dead person. But now, not only do they have to see these big and terrifying people, In this scene, you also have to witness the situation where the soldier who was standing beside you one moment was killed by flying rocks the next moment.
This change of mentality is too rapid. In this situation, people will go to two extremes, either they will be reborn as qualified warriors and mature all of a sudden, or they will quickly collapse.
Many people collapsed under such circumstances.
Amidst the smoke and dust, many people came out of their hiding places in a daze, refusing to look back despite the shouts of the superior officials and colleagues around them, and were then killed by falling stones. Others rushed out screaming and jumping from the battlements several feet high to end this nightmare on their own.
The trebuchet bombing lasted for more than half an hour. When the bombing ended, a thick layer of large and small stones was piled on the walls of the four cities of Hezhou, as if it had experienced a major earthquake. Some of the battlements and arrow towers were destroyed, but most of the city defenses remained standing.
The moment the trebuchets stopped bombing, Zhou Tinggou issued an order to immediately take up positions to defend the city. Because Zhou Tinggou knew that the bombing of the trebuchets was not to kill the defenders at the top of the city, but to cover the approach of the siege troops. When the trebuchets stopped bombing, it heralded that the rebel infantry siege had begun.
The situation was almost as expected by Zhou Tinggou. When the dust cloud on the top of the city dispersed, the defenders on the city wall saw a situation that made them dizzy. Under the city wall, the rebel siege soldiers, who were as dense as ants, were pouring towards the city wall from all directions. Under the cover of the catapults, the leading rebels were less than fifty steps away from the city wall and were about to reach the moat. .
Zhou Tinggou gave an order, and the defenders at the top of the city and hundreds of arrow towers immediately fired thousands of arrows. Although he is a new recruit, this kind of archery only requires shooting out. There is no need to aim at all. The emphasis is on shooting over a large area to increase the chance of hitting. The rebel soldiers who rushed to the city fell in pieces, and the sounds of wailing and screaming could not be heard.
After a round of arrow rain, the rebels suffered over a thousand casualties. It was like stepping on the ants all over the ground with their huge feet. The arrows they shot would always hit someone. However, the rebels did not retreat because of this. The rebel team's supervising team was standing behind the formation with sharp swords in their hands. Anyone who dared to take a step back would be cut in half with a swing of the sword.
If you advance, you will live, if you retreat, you will die. Under this situation, the rebels' offensive did not slow down at all.
Soon, the rebel crossbowmen began to fire back at the city head. Although the power of shooting at the city head was not great, it still caused psychological distress to the recruits defending the city.
When I saw the dense arrows shooting towards the city, I didn't know if they could hit me, but my first reaction was to shrink my head and avoid them. This is the difference between veterans and new recruits.
Veterans will simply ignore the upward arrows and shoot downwards at this time, because they know that the chance of hitting an arrow is very small, and there is no need to worry at all. This subconscious little action by the recruits cost them the opportunity to shoot one more arrow. The arrows on the city's head became obviously sparse.
The rebel soldiers were all well-trained soldiers and horses, and the siege was carried out in an orderly manner. As pontoons were erected on the moat, the siege road leading to the city wall finally became a thoroughfare. Countless soldiers and horses poured into the city and began to climb up the city wall using ladders. The vicinity of the southern Wengcheng gate was also quickly breached by the rebels. The Wengcheng gate was not stronger than the inner city and was quickly breached.
It was expected that the gate of Wengcheng would be broken. The gate of Wengcheng did not need to be strong, because only if it was broken, the enemy would be attracted to enter Wengcheng, and then they would be besieged by archers on the four walls.
However, as if they knew that Wengcheng was not allowed to be entered without permission, the rebel soldiers did not enter rashly. It was not until soon that the rebel soldiers, holding large shields on their heads and pushing a giant log several feet long and as thick as an arm, bravely braved the arrows to rush into the car. The rain came close to the city gate. Several groups of charging cars were like giant armored centipedes, ignoring the rain of arrows shot down from the city wall, rushing into the barbican city and heading straight for the main gate.
A moment later, the sound of "boom, boom, boom" hitting the city gate suddenly resounded throughout the battlefield.
Zhou Tinggou felt cold. Less than an hour after the war started, the rebels had already begun to attack the city gate. This was due to the disparity in strength. The combat effectiveness of the new recruits was too weak. Even though they were at high altitude and had the power of a fortified city, they were still too frightened to death to dare to put up a desperate resistance.
The firepower of the more than 60,000 soldiers and horses defending the city was not even as powerful as the 20,000 frontier troops he had led. It was so easy for the rebels to build countless pontoon bridges on the moat, and even allowed the rushers to cross the river to attack. Arrived at the main entrance.
"Why don't you quickly pour down the boiling oil and golden soup to stop the car from attacking the city gate!" Zhou Tinggou shouted urgently.
Above the city gate, the hurried defenders poured several large pots of oil down, and the oil fell on the large iron shields and splashed everywhere. Zhou Tinggou thought he would see these rebels crying and jumping into the moat to avoid the hot oil pouring on them. But what he didn't expect was that pouring the boiling oil had no effect. The rebels under the shields actually After only a moment of panic, he started frantically hitting the city gate again.
"How could this be?" Zhou Tinggou asked in shock.
"Damn it, these new recruits forgot to light the fire and boil the oil, and poured several large pots of cold oil down!" A general yelled in reply.
Good guy, Zhou Tinggou almost ran out of energy and fainted. What kind of soldiers and horses are these? They were completely frightened and lost their souls. They were so panicked that they couldn't do anything. How could they defend the city?
