After discovering that the official army had increased its troops, the rebel spies quickly reported back, and Pu Shiwen and others were greatly surprised.
"Two thousand reinforcements? Where did they come from?..."
"I think they were transferred back from Gutian, but instead of strengthening the defense of Fuzhou City, they actually went to rescue Quanzhou?"
"Isn't this just looking at the beginning and not the end? Aren't you afraid that we will really attack Fuzhou?"
While everyone was discussing, Pu Shisi had a sullen face and closed his eyes in deep thought. He came over for a while before speaking, "The current situation probably reveals two messages, one good and one bad."
"What message?"
Pu Shiwen and others looked at Pu Shisi with confusion.
Pu Shisi pinched his eyebrows and said slowly, "First of all, basically all the troops that the government and army can use are concentrated here, which means that King Yan himself is indeed here, which is good news."
"Secondly, King Yan has probably seen through our intentions a long time ago. This is not a surprise and has little relationship. After all, we are taking further actions based on his reaction. He should also understand this, so he will take advantage of it. , using himself as bait to make us lock our strength and eyes on him, thus buying time for Quanzhou. Now he only needs to delay for another three or four days, and when the second batch of armies arrives, he will be able to take the initiative to reverse the situation. "
After hearing his analysis, others also understood.
"No wonder the spies said that the officers and soldiers don't look like they are building an ordinary camp. I'm afraid they are preparing to defend."
"This Prince Yan is so damn courageous. He actually wants to confront us head-on?"
"Not to mention, he now has nearly 6,000 men. It's really difficult for us to set up camp."
"How about we leave a small number of people to confront him, and the rest can go fight against Fuzhou..."
But Pu Shisi shook his head, "No matter how empty Fuzhou is, it is still a strong city. It cannot be defeated in a day or two. If King Yan transfers the troops from Nanjianzhou back from the beginning, it will probably be We can get there in two or three days, so running around like this is probably just a waste of time."
"The most important thing is that our core target is King Yan himself. Since he is right in front of us, capturing him is the best choice."
"I guess King Yan may regard us as bandits and thieves with weak fighting ability, so he has the confidence to dare to confront us head-on." 33
Hearing this, Liu Qingzhu deeply agreed, "My dear brother, what you said is very reasonable. King Yan's purpose is to delay time. We can't be fooled again. As long as we can win a quick victory, we will attack hard. I want to see, he How long can I hold on!"
Pu Shiwen silently compared the strength of both sides and believed that victory was certain. "Since King Yan came prepared, it is impossible to rob the camp. Then we don't need to wait until night to take action. Why not attack directly now."
Others also agreed, and immediately summoned their men who were ambushing in various mountains and forests, gathered on the official road, and then rushed to Mianting Ridge more than ten miles away.
When they arrived in front of Mianting Ridge, the sun was already hanging in the west and would soon set on the mountain. The army's defenses were generally completed.
It was indeed not a camping ground. There were not even a few tents set up. It looked like a field defense position.
Chen Wei's site selection was very sophisticated. He set up the circular position at the highest point of the mountain. The northwest and northwest directions were steep and difficult to navigate. If he wanted to attack, he could only attack from the east and south.
In both directions, there are slopes nearly a hundred feet long, with a trench halfway up the slope.
Two feet behind the trench was a shallow ditch, with an earthen wall half a man high built on the inside. One foot behind the earthen wall was a wooden fence half a foot high.
On the slope behind the wooden fence, there are many platforms made of earth and rocks, as well as shielding walls made of various frames. These facilities can effectively resist arrow attacks.
In front of the trench, there are deer villages and horses scattered at random, as well as many jumbled and short earth piles, tree stumps, bamboo and wooden pickets, and many deep and shallow small pits.
It may not seem like an obstacle, but when it comes to fighting, it will become a stumbling block for the attacking side.
With his sharp eyes, Pu Shiwen noticed the little bits of light reflected in the weeds on the slope, and guessed that they were probably sprinkled with caltrops.
"These officers and soldiers are very agile. They were able to create such a perfect position in just an hour and a half. It doesn't look much easier than attacking a county."
Liu Qingzhu's expression became solemn, "The official road is completely within the range of the ridge. If you want to go around to the northwest of the ridge, you will definitely suffer huge losses. Moreover, judging from the mountain topography, the northwest direction is probably not suitable for attacking, and the obstacles on the southern slopes are It’s much less than the east side, obviously they deliberately want us to attack from the south.”
"The rest is easy to say, but this caltrop is very troublesome, but the officers and soldiers must leave a safe passage for themselves. I took a closer look and found that it is probably the three-foot-wide area due south. In this case, let's Attack from here!"
As Pu Shisi finished speaking, the rebels began to take action.
After a while, about a thousand armored rebels held up large shields to clear the way and approached the foot of the mountain in a horizontal formation.
Behind this crooked horizontal formation were more than three thousand pirates in various costumes, holding small shields and swords and axes. They walked together in small groups of three to five, looking chaotic.
Following the pirates were more than 4,000 crossbowmen. They walked scattered on both sides of the official road, deliberately keeping a distance from each other.
But on the official road between them, there were more than a thousand people pushing seven crossbow carts and about thirty small and medium-sized artillery carts.
Then came more than 3,000 soldiers with Tibetan appearance. Their armors and weapons were all strange but very sophisticated. They were the so-called Fanshang militia.
Behind them, there are more than a thousand left-wing troops. Except for the navy camp led by Chen Lei, the others are the 500 people who were first sent by Uncle Xie Fang to reinforce Tingzhou.
Pu Shisi and others, as the command organization, were heavily protected by these left-wing troops.
On the mountain ridge, Chen Wei looked at all this with a telescope, and his heart sank slightly.
But he said calmly, "Fifteen thousand people are a bit difficult to deal with. I don't know who is commanding the other party. Such a formation can really weaken the effect of our long-range strikes."
Lu Changqing carefully examined the rebels at the foot of the mountain, "With their posture, they plan to launch a general attack from the beginning, and the biggest threat to us is the ballistas and artillery vehicles."
Chen Wei nodded slightly, "Yes, we must prioritize attacking these ballistas and artillery vehicles, and we must not let them get too close."
Knowing that salvoes were not very effective against loose formations, Chen Wei simply placed the first wave of strikes on the ballistas and artillery vehicles that were densely populated and pose a greater threat.
When the rebel shield soldiers arrived at the foot of the mountain, the ballistae and artillery carriages entered the firing range. Only then did Chen Wei order the attack.
With the sound of three crisp chimes, the crossbows and counterweighted trebuchets arranged on various platforms were launched in unison, kicking off the battle.
Twenty crossbows flew out first, and then dozens of stones weighing ten kilograms rose up into the sky.
Immediately afterwards, more than two thousand crossbowmen appeared from behind earthen walls and wooden fences, firing dense crossbow bolts.
After discovering that the officers and soldiers were attacking, the rebel shield soldiers immediately squatted down with their shields tilted up, trying to hide their bodies under the cover of the shields.
However, the target of this round of attacks was not them, but the ballistae and artillery vehicles traveling on the official road.
The crossbows and stones fell one after another, and blood and flesh flew everywhere. Nearly half of the ballistas and artillery carts were hit and suffered varying degrees of damage. One or two hundred rebels pushing carts were injured or killed.
The crossbow arrows that followed exploded with countless blood sprays, instantly adding another four to five hundred casualties.
Such a tragic situation frightened the surviving cart rebels and they all stopped.
But Pu Shisi burst out laughing when he saw this, "The officers and soldiers were fooled! Beat the drums and the whole army attacks!"
It turned out that he understood the problems of his team. It was impossible to fight step by step and implement any complicated tactics.
The only effective tactic is to charge forward and beat the old master to death with random punches.
But if they suffer a heavy blow from the beginning, the morale of these soldiers will quickly disappear.
Therefore, he deliberately used artillery carriages and crossbows to attract the first wave of attacks from the officers and soldiers, and then took advantage of the opportunity to reload and launch a charge, catching the officers and soldiers off guard.
The rapid drum beat sounded, and the shield soldiers in the front row realized that they had not been attacked. Their morale was greatly shaken. Under the leadership of the big and small bosses, they got closer together and rushed madly up the slope along the passage without iron caltrops.
The swordsmen and axemen immediately ran and gathered together, following behind the shield soldiers.
After hearing the sound of the drum and seeing the traitor's actions, Chen Wei's face sank and he instantly realized the intention.
"Send the order, change tactics, prioritize attacking the rebel forwards, and slow down their advance!"
Fortunately, although there are only more than 2,000 qualified crossbowmen among the more than 5,000 people, the rest can be responsible for loading the bow, and after the crossbowmen complete a round, they still have a loaded crossbow on hand.
So they immediately obeyed the order and shot at the shield soldiers who had gone up the slope and the axemen behind them.
Although these people had shields, they could not completely block the crossbow arrows fired from high places by the officers and soldiers, and the armor on their bodies could not withstand the power of armor-piercing arrows.
In an instant, six to seven hundred shield soldiers and sword and axemen fell in the torrential rain of crossbow arrows.
After the officer's crossbowmen finished shooting, they immediately put down the empty crossbows, took over the reloaded crossbows, and fired another round of volleys. Another large number of rebels fell down, and the forward momentum was greatly frustrated.
At this time, the rebel's crossbowmen also reached shooting distance, stopped and shot upward towards the hillside.
They stood very scattered, and the shooting time was not uniform. More than 4,000 bows, arrows and crossbows fell into the official and army positions in such a mess.
Although the effect was not very good, the officers and soldiers also began to suffer casualties.
Despite this, the officer's crossbowmen still withstood the arrows fired continuously and launched the third round of volley down the slope.
Then the bed crossbow was reloaded at this time, and twenty crossbow guns roared towards the rebels, smashing the shields in their hands into pieces, and then continued to pierce into the bodies of each one.
After receiving such a sharp blow, many rebels became panicked and ran to both sides in a panic, trying to leave this bloody place.
As a result, most people stepped on the caltrops, fell down suddenly, rolled around with their injured legs, and screamed. Instead, they were stabbed into the body by other caltrops, causing even more miserable screams.
Pu Shisi's face darkened and he shouted angrily, "Use the drums! The whole army is coming!"
He knew that the bloody courage of these people could not fade away, and they had to work hard to rush to the official positions.
To put it bluntly, it is to use superior troops and lives to build a path to victory.
Under his order, more than 3,000 merchants and civilians brandished various weapons and began to charge faster. They rushed past the crossbowmen and caught up with the swordsmen and axemen.
If anyone dared to retreat or hesitated, they would act as a supervisor and chop them to death, scaring others so much that they could only move forward.
For a time, the black mass of rebels filled the entire wilderness in front of the mountain, shouting at the top of their lungs and surging towards Mianting Ridge like a wave.
Faced with this overwhelming force, many military crossbowmen could not help but feel horrified, but continued to shoot under the wild shouts and commands of the generals.
More and more rebels fell on the hillside, many of them injured but not dead.
But more rebels, under the pressure of war drums and supervising teams, could only continue to trample on the 'corpses' of their accomplices, push or bypass those who resisted the horses in the deer village, and surge upward with all their strength.
Soon, the rebels came to the first trench, only two feet away from the earth wall.
As long as you cross this trench, you can instantly rush into the officers and soldiers who are still holding crossbows and slaughter them wantonly!
Some people died, but not completely...
