In the east of Lucheng, more than 4,000 tribal troops were ready to attack the city.
Originally, Liu Xikun wanted to hold a grand attack ceremony and deliver an impassioned battle message.
It doesn’t matter whether the natives understand it or not, the important thing is to have a sense of ceremony.
With a wave of his hand, tens of thousands of people will charge into battle and conquer cities and territories for themselves.
The sight of commanding thousands of troops is exciting just to think about it, especially for people with a strong desire for power.
However, at this time, Liu Xikun had completely lost his interest. He stood on the general stage with a sullen face, pursed his lips and said nothing.
The tribal troops under the stage did not form a formation, but were in a mess, in groups of three or five, or more than a dozen, gathering together with their respective tribes.
After standing for a long time, they began to become impatient, cursing in different dialects, and banging their weapons on the large wooden shields they had made.
It didn't look like he was going to fight, but rather like he was rushing to a big gathering.
The scene lacked the solemnity and solemnity before the army went into battle. Instead, it became more and more chaotic and looked more and more like a child's play.
So everyone on the stage glanced at Liu Xikun, who was still gloomy, but they didn't want to say anything for fear of getting into trouble.
Liu Xikun's experience is naturally known to everyone. In private, he may laugh, despise, pity, or admire him, but he will not show it on his face.
Finally, Liu Jianming took a step forward and said, "Ahem... Sir, the auspicious time has come, please give the order to send troops!"
"Yes." Liu Xikun's face was expressionless and he couldn't wave his hand, so he gave the order right then and there.
But at this moment, Jiu Gu, who was standing side by side with him, spoke, meaning that he had to sacrifice for divination before attacking.
The most important events of the country are military affairs and sacrifices. This should be the consensus of most human nations. It is also proper to ask whether the fortune will be good or bad before a war.
But Jiu Gu did not mention it in advance but mentioned it temporarily, which was a bit hasty and seemed to overshadow the guest. After all, the nominal commander-in-chief was Liu Xikun.
Liu Xikun had a sinister look in his eyes and nodded numbly.
Afterwards, Jiu Gu came to the stage dressed up. Her head was covered with gorgeous feathers and flowers, and there were a dazzling array of ornaments hanging around her neck, including gems, shells, animal teeth, silver beads, and two of Liu Xikun's teeth. , the clothes that only cover the chest and crotch are sewn from leopard skin, and are also dotted with many decorations. Other parts such as shoulders, back, wrists, and feet are all decorated with decorations.
In the eyes of the natives, this was a top beauty, so the audience immediately cheered.
Jiu Gu smiled proudly, then spread his hands and chanted something loudly, which made the natives even more excited.
Then she picked up a handful of millet and threw it into a large fire, then threw nine black heads into it, and then performed a series of sacrificial movements.
Black smoke rose from the fire into the sky, which seemed to mean that the gods accepted the sacrifice, so the natives all howled loudly.
Musical instruments such as nose flute, leather drum, harmonica, percussion wood, and bells were played one after another. All the natives followed the rhythm and danced the warrior dance with fierce movements, just like the steps in battle.
Liu Jianming, Cai Qicang, Yan Zhengnan and others were a little dumbfounded. It was okay to forget that the ceremony was weird, but it was really hard to understand that they had to expend their physical strength before fighting...
However, as the locals do as the Romans do, and they have to rely on these natives to work for their lives, no one raised any objections.
What's more, even if he raised objections, there would probably be no objections. After all, even Liu Xikun had to surrender under Jiugu's leopard skin skirt.
After more than a quarter of an hour, these natives finally finished dancing and all focused their attention on Jiu Gu on the stage.
At this time, Jiu Gu opened the bamboo box held by the attendant, took out a bird with a respectful expression, and let it stand on his finger.
Whenever the natives do important things, such as going out to farm, hunting, farming, building houses, funerals, etc., they must be "bird accounted for".
The bird is a peppermint, white in color and with a long tail. When fortune-telling, the chirping of the peppermint is used to judge good or bad luck. A loud and crisp sound is good luck, and a subtle sound is bad luck.
At this time, all the natives held their breath and looked nervously at the bird in Jiugu's hand.
Jiugu murmured a prayer and stroked the bird's feathers.
The little bird seemed to enjoy the caress, and slowly raised its head and chirped loudly, but the sound was different from ordinary bird chirping. It sounded like a human talking, repeating a word.
The whole place was silent, so the cry reached the ears of every native.
Instantly, all the natives seemed to have been beaten to death, their eyes began to turn red, their expressions were full of enthusiasm, and they danced as if they were about to make a big hole in the earth.
The Han people on the stage couldn't help but wonder, how could a bird's call inspire such strong morale?
A tongue-talker explained, "This bird is the sacred bird of the Pawan tribe. It can speak human language. What it just said was 'great victory'."
I see……
Liu Jianming secretly thought that this bird was probably the same as the myna parrot, but the natives had little knowledge and believed in bird divination, so they regarded it as a miracle.
In fact, his guess was not entirely correct. This bird was named the Spotted Munia in later generations. It is true that some of them have the ability to imitate sounds, but very few of them can imitate human speech. Even fewer can imitate human speech.
The natives originally used this bird for divination, and the Jiugu bird was albino and could speak. Therefore, it was because of this that it had a strong influence on all natives regardless of tribe.
After accepting the blessing of the divine bird, the tribal army with high morale began to attack Lucheng.
Had it not been for Jiu Gu's repeated emphasis, these warriors would have even thrown away the wooden shields that were not easy to use.
However, regardless of what they said before about marching slowly, and forgetting to spread out enough, more than 4,000 people shouted, walked barefoot, and rushed towards Lucheng, seemingly trying to rush into the city in one fell swoop.
After seeing the tribal army rushing into the firing range, Zeng Ba, who had been impatient for a long time, immediately ordered the crossbow stone cannon to fire a volley.
More than a dozen stone bullets and nearly twenty crossbows fell into the relatively dense crowd of tribal troops.
After the polished stone bullet hits the ground, even if it does not hit anyone, it will bounce and fly around again. If it is hit, it will be either dead or injured.
Even if the crossbow gun with huge kinetic energy hits a wooden shield, it can penetrate it and turn the natives behind the shield into skewers.
Immediately, blood and flesh flew everywhere, causing more than a hundred casualties.
All of a sudden, the fanatical tribal troops were awakened. Although they had no intention of retreating, they remembered the instructions before the battle, so they dispersed one after another and straightened their wooden shields. m.
The pace also slowed down, and he could only advance slowly, and then he was greeted by a large wave of crossbow bolts.
There was a loud sound of woodpecking, and occasionally there were screams of unlucky people.
Seeing that the wooden shield can indeed protect oneself, every 'warrior' did not think that he would be the next unlucky person, so he remained extremely calm and continued to move forward.
After walking for more than ten steps, the second round of crossbow bolts came, and the distance between the stone cannon crossbows was even longer.
On the general stage, Liu Jianming smiled and said to Liu Xikun, "Look, Mr. Lang, I just said that the Song army was so hungry that they had no strength. That means the natives were not obedient, otherwise there would be no casualties at all."
Liu Xikun's face became a little better at this moment, and he put his hand on his nose to cover his mouth, "Sir, I have no plans. We can capture Lucheng in just a short time. As for these rotten natives, there are more opportunities to die." It doesn’t matter, anyway, from now on, hum!”
"Lang Jun is right. These natives are wild and stubborn. They are just taking advantage of them. Lang Jun has to rely on Han talents to achieve his great cause."
Liu Jianming naturally doesn't mind if Liu Xikun transfers his hatred for Jiugu to all the natives.
Liu Xikun looked confused, "If it weren't for the thousands of Han people in Lucheng, why would I have to compromise like this?"
Liu Jianming quietly observed what was happening and said, "Lang Jun, it seems that it is only a matter of time before we take over Lucheng, but..."
"But what?"
"But there must be at least a dozen or two hundred thousand natives on this island. Isn't that a little too much?"
Liu Xikun frowned and lowered his voice, "It is indeed too much. Sir, do you have any countermeasures?"
Liu Jianming shrugged, "Yes, and it's not complicated. Just use the help of the Song Army to kill more people in these few days."
Liu Xikun thought for a while and nodded slowly, "It's a way to kill two birds with one stone. I'm afraid it won't be done well and it will affect the business. After all, if there are too many casualties, the natives may shrink back."
"Of course our priority is to capture Lucheng. Reducing the natives is just incidental. We can take our time and act according to the situation. The best thing is to wait until the overall situation is decided and send as many natives to death as possible..." Liu Jianming He said leisurely.
As long as this idea is planted in Liu Xikun's mind, it will be easier to operate later.
On the battlefield, the natives stopped moving forward after they were thirty feet away from the city wall. They held on to their wooden shields and withstood three or four rounds of crossbow fire. They probably killed or injured another hundred people.
Then, after seeing that the crossbow bolts fired from the top of the city became increasingly sparse, they began to retreat slowly.
At the same time, there were more than 3,000 tribal troops in Beicheng following the same pattern, but they just learned the lesson from the beginning and slowly approached the city wall with a very loose formation.
The Song army at the top of the city must have understood the intentions of the tribal army and no longer fired crossbows easily, but they had to shoot. They couldn't let the tribal army easily reach the moat all at once.
This time the Song Army fired a total of five rounds, causing less than a hundred casualties to the tribal army.
Then the Beicheng tribal troops retreated, and more than three thousand troops from the south began to approach.
The south retreated, the north came again, and then the east again, and so on until the sun set.
A rough calculation showed that there were only six to seven hundred native casualties, of which the majority were injured. However, the Song army fired at least 40,000 to 50,000 crossbow bolts, and most of them were picked up by the tribal army.
Seeing this result, everyone from Liu Xikun and other Han people to Jiu Gu and other native people felt that it was very worthwhile, especially since the Song army seemed to be getting weaker and weaker.
Liu Jianming also said, "When the Song army came, they brought a total of 300,000 crossbow bolts. They have not consumed many in the past few months, but the armory we burned down only contained 100,000 crossbows. After all, they still have the most There are no more than 150,000. Even if they become more cautious later, they will all be consumed in three days at most!"
Jiu Gu and other high-ranking natives calculated that in order to achieve the consumption target, they would probably have to kill or injure more than a thousand natives. Although the price was a bit high, it was not unacceptable.
Late at night, they let the natives deliberately shout and approach the city in the dark. As a result, the casualties they suffered were even smaller.
Waiting until the third day, which is the tenth day of September, when the tribal army approaches the moat, the crossbow bolts will be fired from the top of the city.
Some people died, but not completely...
